Israeli occupation patrol infiltrates Daraa, withdraws under gunfire
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Gunfire of unknown origin has forced the Israeli force to withdraw from Daraa's Koya.
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Local residents ride in the back of vans as they are evacuated due to fears of Israeli army incursions, on the outskirts of the village of Koya, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025 (AP)
An Israeli occupation force patrol consisting of three vehicles infiltrated the perimeter of the village of Koya in the western countryside of Daraa, according to local sources in southern Syria who reported the incident on Sunday.
According to the sources, the Israeli patrol set up a temporary checkpoint between the villages of Ma'ariya and Koya before it came under fire from an unknown origin, forcing it to withdraw toward the al-Jazeera barracks.
On Saturday, an Israeli military force entered the village of Ma'ariya in the Yarmouk Basin, setting up a temporary checkpoint on its eastern side to stop and search pedestrians. In contrast, a separate force moved toward the villages of Koya and Abdeen.
Following the fall of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024, Israeli assaults on Syria have escalated, marked by near-daily ground incursions conducted by Israeli forces into border villages across the countryside of Daraa, Quneitra, and rural Damascus.
'Israel' displaces residents, Syria aims for security deal
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused "Israel" on September 17 of committing war crimes in southern Syria, including forcibly displacing residents and demolishing homes in the buffer zone of the occupied Golan Heights.
HRW stated that Israeli forces, which have occupied parts of southern Syria since December 2024, have carried out a range of abuses against residents, including forced displacement, and the group added that testimonies, satellite imagery, and visual evidence corroborated accounts of arbitrary arrests and the blocking of livelihoods.
The report coincides with Syrian state media reports that Israeli forces detained several people in the south and comes a day after Damascus announced it was working with Washington to reach mutual "security understandings" with "Israel".
Syrian transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa confirmed in statements to Turkish media on September 19 that Syria is nearing a US-mediated security agreement with "Israel", which he stated could be finalized in the coming days.
He emphasized that the agreement would be similar to the 1974 disengagement accord, clarifying that it does not indicate any form of normalization between Damascus and Tel Aviv nor is it related to the "Abraham Accords".
