The Israeli Occupation Blocks Syrian Movement in Quneitra by Connecting Its Occupied Positions, But to What End?

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) are reportedly devising a new strategy in southern Syria, aimed at linking the military positions it seized in the Quneitra countryside following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

It continues to expand its incursions in southern Syria, effectively rendering the 1974 disengagement agreement signed with Hafez al-Assad’s government null and void.

Military Outposts

In a further escalation, the IOF established a military post at the entrance to the village of Ufaniya in the Quneitra countryside of southern Syria, following its incursion into the area at the end of August 2025, effectively restricting residents’ movements and placing them under de facto siege.

Local sources in Quneitra province told Syria TV that the village’s main road is now regularly patrolled by Israeli Occupation Forces, with vehicles moving from the direction of al-Hamidiyah or Jubata al-Khashab, obstructing civilian traffic, particularly during morning hours.

The presence of Israeli Occupation Forces has sown fear among residents, who are anxious about house raids, searches, or the arrest of young men.

According to the sources, occupation patrols stop at the military post at the village entrance or near Nasr Mosque and the Ain al-Bayda Bridge to inspect passing vehicles, further restricting freedom of movement.

The IOF has penetrated the demilitarized buffer zone in the occupied Syrian Golan, in place since 1967, along the edges of the territory "Israel" controls on the Syrian plateau.

Following the annulment of the 1974 disengagement agreement, "Israel" also seized Mount Hermon, or Jabal el-Sheikh, and villages and lands more than 25 kilometers deep inside Syria, extending the occupation of the Golan Heights. 

Mount Hermon, which straddles Syria and Lebanon, overlooks the occupied Golan and is visible from Jordan.

Notably, Israeli patrols in the Quneitra countryside follow fixed routes, resembling defined military lines connecting the villages.

Israeli occupation posts are dispersed across Quneitra, including a point near the strategic al-Mantara Dam in al-Qahtaniyah village, established in January 2025, where part of the dam’s water was diverted to the Yarmouk basin.

Another post was set up in the Jubata al-Khashab nature reserve in May 2025, where the Israeli Occupation Forces cleared the entire reserve to create a military airstrip and installed an observation tower on the agricultural fire lookout.

Additional positions include Tal Ahmar, west of Koudna village, established in May 2025, and a base in al-Hamidiyah village, set up in June 2025, east of the village after residents’ homes were evacuated, large areas bulldozed, and more than 15 houses destroyed.

The Israeli Occupation Forces also established a military post at Qors al-Nafl in the area west of Hadar village, which was set up in December 2024.

It appears that the occupation has been working to link these military points by creating a network of roads along the route connecting Koudna and al-Hamidiyah villages, passing through al-Qahtaniyah, Bariqa, Beerajam, and Rouhina, in order to facilitate the movement of vehicles and deeper incursions into the village of al-Samdaniah.

This is accompanied by a broader campaign of intimidation against residents in southern Syria, carried out by the IOF.

On September 3, 2025, IOF arrested seven people from Jubata al-Khashab in northern Quneitra and raided and searched several homes.

The occupation claimed that its forces “detained a number of individuals suspected of engaging in terrorist activities against soldiers in the Jubata area of southern Syria” during the night, before transferring them into Israeli custody.

The Israeli patrol, comprising “five vehicles and 30 personnel,” had entered from a newly established base near Jubata al-Khashab, close to Mount Hermon, conducting the raids and arrests at 3 a.m. before withdrawing around 5 a.m. “toward the base.”

Pressure on Damascus

The IOF frequently carries out multiple night operations in southern Syria aimed at searching for weapons and individuals.

On August 26, Syrian forces discovered surveillance and eavesdropping equipment at the Jabal al-Manea site in the Damascus countryside, which separates Eastern and Western Ghouta. 

While attempting to deal with the devices, the site came under an Israeli airstrike, killing several soldiers and destroying military vehicles, according to the official Syrian news agency SANA.

The following day, on August 27, an Israeli drone targeted a military residence belonging to Syria’s 44th Division in the Harjely area of al-Kiswah in western Damascus countryside, killing three division personnel.

The strike came just hours after SANA reported the death of a young man following an Israeli attack on a home in the village of Taranja in northern Quneitra.

Syria’s foreign ministry has repeatedly condemned “Israel’s” campaigns of arrests targeting civilians, and denounced the continued illegal positioning of forces on the summit of Mount Hermon and in the demilitarized zone.

Within this context, Syrian security researcher Nawar Shaaban, at the Hermon Center for Contemporary Studies, told Al-Estiklal that, “From a military-technical perspective, establishing small logistical points between larger positions is meant for logistical support and to reduce the cost of moving forces over long distances.”

“What the IOF are doing in southern Syria is not purely a military-technical matter; Israel is not only thinking about positioning against Syrian forces, but also about increasing pressure on local communities, creating an unsafe and unstable environment, and exploiting this fragility for political leverage over the Damascus government during negotiations, even though the negotiation process is still incomplete and immature,” Shaaban added.

He continued, “Logistically, "Israel" supplies these bases and points through parachute drops and other means.”

“By establishing a network of military points in southern Syria, the occupation forces are intensifying pressure on the local population in Quneitra, damaging livelihoods through land levelling, tree destruction, roadblocks, and house searches.”

“This directly impacts the negotiation table with Damascus, which holds the responsibility of protecting the population,” Shaaban noted.

“Israel’s” deployment of ground forces to the Quneitra countryside, and the establishment of military points along with the free movement of its troops in local villages, comes despite a meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer in Paris on August 19, 2025.

At the time, Axios reported that the Dermer-Shaibani meeting “discussed security arrangements along the Syria-'Israel' border.”

The site noted that the meeting was mediated by the administration of former President Donald Trump, marking the highest-level official encounter between "Israel" and Syria in more than 25 years.

Following this, Shaibani and Dermer held a subsequent meeting on August 30 in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.

No Plans to Withdraw

"Israel"’s attacks in southern Syria are officially presented as an effort to disarm the Syrian state across the three southern provinces of Quneitra, Daraa, and Sweida.

However, Israeli violations, arrests, and repeated strikes on new army positions, resulting in casualties and destruction of weapons, are viewed by Radwan Ziadeh, a researcher at the Arab Center in Washington, as “giving the impression that the current Syrian government is extremely weak, unable to assert sovereignty or territorial integrity, or to prevent any form of escalation from the Israeli side.”

Ziadeh told Newsweek, “I don't think the Syrian people will accept any deal that would not include the Golan Heights.”

“Still, the majority of Syrians, I can say the vast majority, consider the Golan as a part of Syrian land, with Syria occupied illegally after the 1967 war, and this is why I think it's part of the understanding.”

Against this backdrop, "Israel" continues to draw new strategies in Syrian territory, acting as though preparing for any agreement that might prevent escalation and maintain calm along the border. 

During a meeting with the leader of the Druze community in "Israel", Sheik Moafaq Tarif, and other Druze officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video released by his office on August 28, said that “discussions are underway” to establish a demilitarized zone in southern Syria and create a humanitarian corridor to deliver aid to Sweida, a predominantly Druze city.

“We are focusing on three things: protecting the Druze community in Sweida province and other areas, establishing a demilitarized zone stretching from the (Israeli-occupied) Golan to southern Damascus, including Sweida, and opening a humanitarian corridor to deliver food, building materials, and all necessary supplies,” Tarif said.

Separatist tendencies have emerged in Sweida, led by the head of the Druze spiritual council in the province, Hikmat al-Hajri, who publicly requested “Israel’s” assistance in this initiative.

In this context, Wael Alwan, a researcher at the Jusour Center for Studies, confirmed that since "Israel" entered the demilitarized zone following al-Assad’s fall, which was supposed to be free of arms, and expanded into deeper southern areas including the summit of Mount Hermon and parts of the Damascus countryside, it is clear that these deployments and incursions are “not intended for later withdrawal.”

Alwan told Al-Estiklal that “ 'Israel' aims through these movements to expand its zones of influence, create a buffer area, and undermine it, rather than uphold the 1974 disengagement agreement, which Syria has continued to honor until now.”