Earlier this week, Israeli troops started their deepest invasion into Syrian territory yet, parachuting into the village of El Mal, in the northern part of the Daraa Governorate. El Mal is about 14 km from the occupied Golan Heights.
Exactly what they were doing in El Mal is unclear, but they destroyed some buildings, excavated some in the area, and then withdrew on Tuesday morning, according to locals. Just part of the new normal in occupied southern Syria.
Israeli forces also entered the town of al-Swisah, in Quneitra Governorate, along with some nearby villages. They stayed for around two hours, according to reports from locals, and spent much of their time there interrogating residents.
Additional Israeli forces and their heavy machinery were seen advancing on the town of al-Majdoulia and its hospital, according to al-Mayadeen. There has been no IDF comment on why that would be, nor really any comment on any of their operations inside Syria.
Israel invaded Syria in early December after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. That invasion was initially limited to the UNDOF demilitarized zone along the Golan Heights frontier but has since expanded deeper into Syrian territory. All indications are that these operations are open-ended, with no timetable for leaving.
Across the Quneitra Governorate, the site of Israeli tanks operating with impunity is increasingly common, and some villages even reported Israeli troops were taking a census in those areas which are more directly occupied, in addition to the usual activity of destroying government buildings.
Israel has presented distrust of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) dominated government in Syria as the reason for their activities. This has expanded to include forbidding the Syrian government from having any military presence in Quneitra, Daraa, or Suwayda Governorates, and Israel has also attacked sites in Rif Damashq for having military sites it feels are too far south.
Increasingly, Israel views any efforts to unify Syria, which was for over a decade divided by civil war, as inherently a threat to it. Israel has reportedly been lobbying the international community to keep Syria weak and is said to be particularly opposed to Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria that have been pushing unification after Assad’s ouster.
