Israeli forces entered the Quneitra Governorate again on Sunday and established and set up a new military checkpoint along the road near al-Rafid, in the southern part of that governorate, in southwestern Syria.
The Israeli troops at the checkpoint stopped and searched Syrian civilians passing by, checked their IDs, and searched their vehicles. So far there are no reports of any detentions coming out of this incident.
Yesterday, Israeli tanks entered Western Daraa Governorate and opened fire on agricultural land with heavy machine gun fire. There were no casualties reported as a result of the fire, but substantial damage was done to the area.
Israeli troops block the road in southwest Syria | Image from SOHR
Also yesterday, Israeli vehicles entered the village of al-Ajraf and set up a checkpoint inside the village, which is in central Quneitra. That was only a temporary checkpoint and they left after a few hours without further incident.
These are the first infiltration incidents of August, but come after July already saw a substantial increase in the number of infiltrations. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 64 such incidents in July, across both Daraa and Quneitra Governorates.
This 64 number only represents ground incursions into Syrian territory, and does not include the scores of drone overflights reported in the area as well. Though the raids and checkpoints in the last two days don’t appear to have led to any, many of the incursions have also involved detentions of Syrian civilians, which at times only last a few hours but from which sometimes the detainee simply doesn’t return, leaving their family uncertain about their fate.
