The regime change in Syria earlier this month was followed almost immediately by an Israeli invasion across the demilitarized zone line separating Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria. Since then, that invasion keeps getting deeper, with troops reportedly reaching the city of Quneitra on Monday.
Israeli troops and tanks surrounded government buildings in the town of al-Baath in the Queneitra countryside, ordering officials to withdraw from the area and claiming they were “conducting inspections.” Quneitra City is even deeper into Syrian territory, about 2 miles, beyond the UNDOF demilitarized zone and inside southern Syria proper.
In al-Baath, they focused not just on government buildings, but also an automated bakery and the Real Estate Bank. All workers were expelled from those buildings after they were surrounded by Israeli tanks.
Israel has already seized Mount Hermon, a strategic location at which it intends to stay throughout at least all of 2025. More recently it has seized water resources in the Yarmouk River Basin, ensuring that the Israeli military will have de facto control over these parts of Syria for, potentially, as long as it wants.
Israel has yet to make any statements on its latest advances into Syria. The incursion, combined with an ever-growing number of deadly airstrikes across the country, are leading to considerable speculation about Tel Aviv’s long-term intentions.
The only thing Israeli officials are emphasizing publicly is that their air strikes are intended to destroy old military assets of the Assad government. The new Islamist government in Syria has been talking up a better relationship with Israel, but Israeli officials are indicating that they don’t consider the new government legitimate, and seem to be as hostile militarily toward Syria as they were before the regime change.
