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Syrian state news agency SANA reported that Israeli forces launched a raid into the villages of Bariqa and Kudna in the Quneitra countryside on Monday using three military vehicles that entered from the direction of Bir Ajam. A separate convoy of 12 vehicles advanced into the village of Saida al-Golan from the western side of Saida al-Hanout where soldiers established a temporary checkpoint at the western intersection and broke into local homes. The agency said no immediate details emerged on any detentions or clashes during the operation which occurred as a Syrian delegation held talks with Israeli officials in Paris under United States mediation.
A SANA correspondent separately documented a further incursion on Tuesday morning in which two Israeli tanks accompanied by soldiers moved into the Tal al-Duriyat area near the village of Al-Muallaqa in the southern Quneitra countryside. The report provided no further information on the duration of the raid or any resulting casualties. Anadolu Agency which cited Syrian media confirmed the Tuesday operation came one day after Israeli troops shot and killed a man near a military post in the buffer zone claiming he had attempted to approach a security area.
According to figures cited by Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month Israeli forces have carried out more than 500 air and artillery strikes along with 1 200 land incursions and nearly 300 detentions across southern Syria since the fall of the Assad government in December 2024. The Sijil Center a Syrian rights monitoring group has tracked the establishment of at least nine new Israeli bases in the region stretching from Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmouk River in the south since the end of 2024. Al-Monitor reported that these actions have fueled local resentment in Quneitra with residents accusing Damascus of failing to protect border communities.
ANHA news agency which monitors southern Syria documented more than 97 Israeli incursions and military movements during September 2026 alone along with 46 temporary checkpoints nine arrests and 19 artillery shelling incidents concentrated in Quneitra and the Yarmouk Basin in neighbouring Daraa province. The agency said activity extended at times into the Damascus countryside with villages such as Jubata al-Khashab Ruwaihinah and Bariqa seeing repeated operations. Syrian officials have consistently described the moves as violations of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement that established a buffer zone following the 1973 war.
Syria Direct noted that Israeli forces have regularly set up flying checkpoints at village entrances in Quneitra and conducted patrols deeper into Syrian territory nearly a year after first advancing into the buffer zone. The London-based outlet reported that entire families were displaced in some villages after Israeli troops ordered residents to leave and destroyed or damaged at least 23 civilian structures in the months following the Assad government’s collapse. Local farmers and shepherds have also faced restrictions on access to grazing land with some accounts describing physical assaults during interrogations.
The Syrian government has demanded a full Israeli withdrawal from the areas seized since December 2024 insisting that all such measures remain null and void under international law. A PwC Middle East assessment of regional dynamics has highlighted how the security situation in southern Syria continues to complicate broader stabilisation efforts across the country. Syrian media reports indicate that talks mediated by the United States have produced limited intelligence cooperation between the sides but have not halted the ground operations.
