Israel pushes deeper into Syria’s Quneitra
Shafaq News – Quneitra
Israeli forces advanced into several towns in southern Quneitra countryside, Syrian state media reported on Friday.
According to Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) correspondent, an Israeli unit of six vehicles entered Saida al-Hanout, while another force of four vehicles and a heavy tracked vehicle moved toward nearby towns, carrying out excavation work north of Bariqa Dam.
Israel also released four citizens it had detained months earlier, SANA added.
Damascus has long accused Israel of violating the 1974 disengagement agreement through incursions, raids, arbitrary detentions, property destruction, and forced displacement across the south, especially Tel Aviv seized the UN-monitored buffer zone in the Golan Heights on December 8, 2024, following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Israel initially described the move as temporary but later said it would hold the area indefinitely.
The United Nations has stated that Israel’s presence breaches the 1974 agreement, which established a 235-square-kilometer demilitarized zone patrolled by UN peacekeepers. Syria also urged the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw and return to the terms of the accord.
Read more: Syria's shifting stance: Is normalization with Israel on the horizon?
