Israeli forces entered the village of al-Asbah in the countryside of Syria’s southern Quneitra governorate and carried out raids and searches inside homes, according to Syria’s al-Ikhbariya channel. Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced the killing of a person it described as a “suspect”, saying he had attempted to infiltrate one of its positions in the security zone in southern Syria.
The Syrian channel said the movement inside al-Asbah coincided with Israeli forces launching illuminating flares over the town of al-Hamidiyah in the Quneitra countryside, while a drone flew over the town. The incursion was preceded by the entry of an Israeli army patrol into an area in southern Syria on Sunday, after excavation work resumed at a nearby site as part of the project known as “Sufa Line 53”.
Excavation resumes along the separation line
Israeli forces resumed excavation work along the separation line with the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel controls, specifically west of the village of al-Asha in the Quneitra countryside. Damascus describes the work as a continuation of violations inside the buffer zone covered by the disengagement agreement. Israel began implementing the project, known as “Sufa 53” or the “Greater Storm”, in mid-2022 from the vicinity of the town of Hader, north of Quneitra.
The work later extended through the towns of Jabata al-Khashab and al-Hamidiyah, and then to al-Qahtaniyah, Ruwayhinah, Bir Ajam and Bariqah in the centre of the governorate. The expansion of the project rendered thousands of dunams of agricultural land in the Quneitra countryside unsuitable for farming and grazing, and also negatively affected water flow and the area’s natural environment.
Expansion of military operations inside Syria
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on 8 December 2024, Israel has expanded the scope of its military operations inside Syria, with its forces advancing into the buffer zone in the Syrian Golan Heights and nearby positions.
Syria is demanding the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the areas into which they have advanced and stresses its commitment to the disengagement agreement signed in 1974. Israel, meanwhile, says its forces’ movements in the area are linked to security considerations.
