UPDATE - Israeli forces raid village in southwestern Syria

UPDATES WITH DETAILS, ADDS DECK

By Mohammad Sio

ISTANBUL (AA) - Israeli forces on Saturday raided a rural village in Quneitra in the country’s southwest, searching homes and setting up checkpoints, Syrian state media reported.

Syrian state-run TV Alikhbaria said Israeli troops entered the village of Sidat al-Hanout with six military vehicles, carried out searches of four homes, and erected four checkpoints in the area.

No immediate information was available on possible arrests or casualties following the incursion.

Separately, the Quneitra Governorate said a UN fact-finding committee arrived in the province Saturday as part of its mandate to document Israeli violations.

“UN fact-finding committee has arrived in Quneitra as part of its mission to document violations committed by the Israeli occupation army against civilians and their property,” the governorate said in a statement posted on its official Telegram channel.

Israeli forces on Friday briefly detained two young men at a checkpoint they set up in Quneitra following an incursion into several villages in the area.

Syrian media said the two men were detained after they were stopped at a checkpoint set up between the town of Umm Batna and the village of Al-Ajraf in rural Quneitra before they were later released.

Syrians say continued Israeli raids undermine efforts to restore stability and complicate government attempts to attract investment aimed at improving economic conditions.

Syrian government data shows that since December 2024, Israel has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes on Syria and more than 400 cross-border raids into the southern provinces.

After the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated a 1974 agreement with Syria.