Shafaq News- Daraa

Israeli forces attacked the village of Abideen in Syria's southern Daraa province and pushed ground troops across the frontier, damaging homes and farmland and forcing residents to flee to neighboring towns.

According to the Syrian state news agency (SANA), the raid came from al-Jazira, an Israeli military post just inside Syrian territory. As armored vehicles advanced, residents blocked the roads into Abideen with stones to keep them out; Israeli troops responded with gunfire and illumination flares over the Yarmouk basin before withdrawing. Hours earlier, soldiers had briefly occupied a nearby hill, pitching tents before abandoning the position. Israeli warplanes and helicopters continued to circle over Daraa and the neighboring Quneitra province through the day.

Syria's Foreign Ministry condemned the operation as a violation of the country's sovereignty and a breach of the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement of Forces, the UN-brokered truce that has separated Syrian and Israeli troops along the occupied Golan Heights since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. It warned that the repeated incursions risk wider escalation and called on the United Nations to enforce the agreement.

Israeli forces have steadily expanded their presence across southern Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, moving into a buffer zone that had separated the two sides for half a century. SANA reported that Israeli troops have established nine forward positions inside Syrian territory, on Mount Hermon and in villages including al-Hamidiyah and al-Adnaniyah, and dug a fortified trench known as "Sofaa Line 53" along the old separation line, cutting farmers off from their land.

The ministry also pointed to earlier abuses in Quneitra, including the detention of 47 Syrians and the demolition of 16 homes in the village of al-Hamidiyah after residents were forced out.

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