Israeli violations continue in Quneitra (southwestern Syria), amid house searches, arrests, and land bulldozing operations.
Enab Baladi’s correspondent reported that an Israeli military force made up of four vehicles entered on Wednesday, June 24, on the road connecting Al-Muallaqa village and Ghadir al-Bustan town in southern rural Quneitra.
The correspondent added that Israeli forces set up a temporary military checkpoint and arrested a civilian as he passed through the area. Another patrol entered west of Rafid town and searched some homes there.
As part of Israeli movements in the area, Israeli vehicles cleared and bulldozed land to establish roads along the barbed wire fence separating the occupied Golan and the buffer zone.
The correspondent explained that the road runs along the barbed wire fence west of Rafid, noting that it is an unpaved dirt road used by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force operating in the area.
The road was also previously used by firefighting vehicles when fires broke out in areas adjacent to the buffer zone, he said, noting that it extends from northern Quneitra to its south along the buffer zone.
Daily Incursions
The Israeli army has been carrying out daily incursions in Quneitra governorate, located on the edge of the occupied Syrian Golan, since it entered the area on December 8, 2024.
These incursions include ongoing arrests of residents from Syria’s southern governorates adjacent to Israel, especially Quneitra.
The arrests carried out by Israeli forces in southern Syria are one of the pressure tactics used against residents of the area, alongside other practices that include incursions, searches, checkpoints, land bulldozing, and home demolitions.
Israeli incursions and search campaigns have become a source of fear for residents because they may turn into arrests of young men, amounting to the enforced disappearance of detainees, amid the absence of any information about where Israel takes them and the lack of any chance to communicate with them.
The number of detainees is estimated at 47 from the governorates of Quneitra, Daraa, and Rural Damascus.
As part of recent field developments, Israeli forces released a young civilian man they had arrested in southern rural Quneitra after incursion operations on June 23.
Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Quneitra reported that the Israeli army released a young civilian hours after arresting him from Ain Ziwan village in the southern countryside, during an incursion by an Israeli army patrol.
The patrol searched several homes in the village, according to the correspondent.
Two tanks also entered the Tel Abu Qubais area around the village, accompanied by around 30 soldiers, and were stationed for several hours in agricultural areas.
The correspondent said an Israeli army patrol entered on Monday from Jazira Company Base, located in the far south of the governorate, toward the al-Arida area in western Daraa countryside, where it stationed in Abidin and deployed inside the area and among its olive trees.
The Israeli army had announced that it would conduct a military exercise this morning in the Golan Heights, saying the area would witness intensive movements by its forces and vehicles, and that explosions could be heard.
Enab Baladi did not monitor any military or security incidents linked to the announced drills.