Israeli army launches new incursion in southern Syria

ISTANBUL

Israeli army forces advanced Monday into the western countryside of Daraa in southern Syria and set up a military checkpoint that restricted civilian movement, in the latest violation of the country’s sovereignty, local media said.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that Israeli troops moved into the area between the villages of Maariya and Abdin, where they established a checkpoint at a junction known locally as al-Maqsam.

“The Israeli forces advanced at dawn between the two villages and set up a temporary checkpoint at the al-Maqsam point, leading to a state of concern among residents and restricting movement”, SANA quoted Moaffaq Mahmoud, the mayor of Abdin and Maariya, as saying.

The raid follows repeated Israeli ground advances in western Daraa that are often accompanied by the installation of military checkpoints aimed at restricting daily life for residents, according to Syrian officials.

On Dec. 6, Israeli artillery shelled an abandoned military position north of the village of Jamla in the Yarmouk Basin area, without causing casualties.

The Israeli army escalated its actions Sunday with three separate incursions in and around Quneitra province in southwestern Syria. That brought the total number of Israeli raids this month to 43, some of which included arrests, according to an Anadolu tally.

Despite the fact that the Syrian government poses no threat, Israeli forces have repeatedly entered Syrian territory and launched airstrikes, killing civilians and destroying Syrian military sites, vehicles, weapons, and ammunition.

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

After the fall of the Bashar al-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.