An Israeli military force consisting of approximately 50 vehicles advanced on Tuesday evening into the village of Al-Adnaniyah in the countryside of Quneitra province, southern Syria, in a move described as the biggest incursion since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the country’s south.
A resident of the area reported that the invading party included armoured vehicles and reconnaissance units.
Saeed Al-Mohammad, a citizen and activist from Quneitra, told The New Arab’s Arabic language sister outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “Israeli military vehicles have been sweeping through the fields in Al-Adnaniyah village for hours, and residents fear a repeat scenario of forced displacement.”
“This incursion isn’t random; Israel aims to displace residents by creating a hostile military environment, which is part of a systematic policy of demographic cleansing,” he added.
Khaled Bakr, a resident of Quneitra, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “The incursion is part of a broader Israeli plan aimed at shifting the balance of power in southern Syria by undermining any military presence near the border.”
Activists warned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Quneitra and Daraa provinces and called for immediate action to prevent the displacement of civilians.
On Tuesday morning, the border area in the western countryside of Daraa, southern Syria, witnessed a limited incursion by an Israeli infantry force into the southern outskirts of the village of Maariya, opposite the village of Koya in the Yarmouk Basin area.
Local sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Israeli force carried out reconnaissance operations in the area, a move that occurs periodically.
This came after Daraa province witnessed two Israeli airstrikes targeting a barracks for Brigade 132 and an area located between here and the adjacent civilian neighbourhood of Masaken al-Dahiya.
The attacks resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to 19 others, including four children, a woman, and three volunteers from the White Helmets civil defence group.
On Tuesday night, Israeli airstrikes targeted a missile battalion near the city of Homs, causing explosions in the area.
The strikes allegedly hit former Syrian army outposts in the villages of Shinshar and Shamsin, south of Homs city, targeting army fortifications believed to house military equipment.
Tensions between Israel and Syria have ratcheted up since Syrian rebels overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December last year.
This prompted Israel to opportunistically expand its illegal occupation into the Golan Heights buffer zone in southern Syria, where it has repeatedly carried out low-scale invasions deeper into the country and carried out unprecedentedly destructive airstrikes.
Fears have arisen that Israel seeks to divide the country along ethnic and sectarian lines by exploiting the country’s internal tensions, with it claiming that the interim government in Damascus is a threat to Syria’s minorities, especially the Druze.
