Since the December 2024 Israeli invasion of Syria, the Israeli military has set up multiple semi-permanent military outposts within Syria’s southwest. There are growing signs that another such installation is planned, and locals are concerned.
Israeli troops have been launching more and more incursions into the Quneitra Governorate, and while some of them are the usual establishment of temporary checkpoints to hassle local civilians, and at least one young man was reportedly captured, there are reasons to think this is more than the typical IDF operations in the area.
Incursions in the area of Tal al-Ahmar al-Sharqi include not just the typical troops, they’re also bringing construction equipment like bulldozers, and prefab building units. Troops also established a checkpoint nearby the town of Samadaniyah al-Sharqiah, and seized a home on a nearby hilltop.
Israeli troops in Syria | Image from SOHR
UN Disengagement Observer Forces (UNDOF) have been deployed to the area at the behest of locals, who are concerned that the units and the growing operation portend Israel establishing another more or less permanent military structure within Syria.
The impression of Israel intended to make itself a permanent occupying power within Syria have been growing in recent weeks, with Israeli troops entering the town of Hadr, and raising an Israeli flag over the town’s entrance.
The IDF has yet to address these reports, which is not unusual because they rarely comment at all on their incursions into Syrian territory, which have been ongoing for more than a year but are treated more or less as an afterthought compared to Israel’s much larger offensive military operations in Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran.
