Israeli incursions, temporary checkpoints in Qunietra countryside
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The IOF expand their incursions in southern Syria, erecting checkpoints and raiding villages.
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A boy rides his bicycle on a road blocked by Israeli army armoured vehicles on the outskirts of the town of Quneitra, Syria, Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 (AP)
Israeli forces carried out multiple incursions in southern Syria on Sunday, setting up temporary checkpoints in the Quneitra countryside before later withdrawing.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, two Israeli military vehicles advanced toward the village of al-Mushairifa, where soldiers established a checkpoint to search pedestrians and vehicles. The force later pulled back to its nearby positions.
In a separate incident, Israeli occupation troops set up a temporary checkpoint at the entrance to al-Halabi village, dismantling it shortly afterward.
Earlier the same day, an Israeli patrol of around eight vehicles raided the town of Saida al-Golan, where troops searched several homes, conducted a few household surveys, and attempted to distribute food supplies, including flour, an offer firmly rejected by local villagers.
Two days earlier, a similar patrol entered the villages of Abidin and al-Arida in the Yarmouk Basin area of western Daraa countryside, deploying heavily across residential neighborhoods amid reports that one person had been detained.
Pattern of escalation
These incidents come amid a broader wave of Israeli incursions across southern Syria in recent weeks. On September 17, occupation forces advanced into the towns of al-Khashab and Ofaniya in northern Quneitra, backed by armored vehicles and drone surveillance.
Just days earlier, they had raided villages in western Daraa, dividing their forces into tactical units as they occupied Saisoun and Sarya Jumla. Additional incursions were reported on September 22 in al-Samdaniyah al-Gharbiyah, following operations in al-Samdaniyah al-Sharqiyah, where troops set up roadside inspection posts.
Since December 2024, "Israel" has expanded its presence dramatically, occupying between 440 and 500 square kilometers of Syrian territory and establishing ten permanent military bases, six of them within the past three months. Strategic sites under occupation include Jubata al-Khashab, Qurs al-Nafal, al-Qahtaniyah, the eastern al-Ahmar hill, and Tulul al-Humr, only 40 kilometers from Damascus.
Damascus: Violations of sovereignty
In a recent interview for CNN, the new Syrian regime's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said that Israeli attacks "make any path toward normalization difficult, as they meet our pursuit of peace with airstrikes." He added that "Israel" has "exacerbated the crisis in Sweida and obstructed our efforts to intervene and restore calm."
Syrian transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa has likewise stressed that "stability in the region cannot be achieved amid ongoing Israeli assaults," rejecting any possibility of normalization while sovereignty continues to be undermined.
"Israel" has occupied most of the Syrian Golan since 1967 and expanded its influence in the area after violating the 1974 disengagement agreement. The occupation now stretches from Mount Hermon through Quneitra and into Daraa, with control over vital water resources and fortified positions across the southern region.
