The US-mediated effort to get a deal between Israel and Syria still seems to be a work in progress, and the IDF is back deploying forces into Syria’s southwestern Quneitra Governorate, and attacking farmland around the area.
Ground troops entered Quneitra and went to multiple Syrian villages, with the largest contingent establishing two checkpoints in the vicinity of Saida al-Hanout. Other deployments were reported at al-Samdaniyah al-Sharqiyah, blocking a road. That town had similarly been raided Tuesday.
During the Tuesday raid, Israeli troops entered al-Samdaniyeah al-Sharqiyah and fired mortar shells at farmland near Jabata al-Khashab. No casualties were reported in the shelling, nor has Israel explained why they were shelling the area in the first place.
Israeli troops in Quneitra | image from SOHR
Israeli drones have also been reported dropping unidentified chemicals over Quneitra farmland, an operation that appears to mirror similar operations this weekend in Lebanon. Details remain unclear about the purpose of the chemicals, but their target suggests an effort to damage farming viability in area even remotely adjacent to Israel-claimed land, and to discourage local farmers from being able to make a living there.
Israel has been launching incursions on the ground into Quneitra since December of 2024, when the Assad government was ousted in Syria and Israel promptly invaded and occupied the demilitarized zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Though the negotiations between Israel and Syria were meant to return the region to the state of relative calm that endured from 1971 to 2024, Israel has ` from the demilitarized zone, and has demanded Syria create an entire new demilitarized zone encompassing all of Quneitra as well as Syria’s other territory south of their capital city of Damascus.
