Israel raids southwest Syria several times a day at this point, with the operations growing in scale. Detentions are still comparatively rare, and oftentimes detained civilians are released within hours, or the following day. The one consistent is that the IDF never talks about who they detained, why they detained them, or what happened to them.
Some of the detainees just disappear outright, which has led to some protests from family members trying to figure out what happened to their relatives. It has now been confirmed that two of the detainees, held for an entire year by the IDF, have finally been returned to Suweisah village in Quneitra Governorate.
Details, as ever, are scant. The IDF never acknowledged capturing them in the first place, never charged them with any crimes, and never provided information on why they held them for a solid year, nor why they decided to release them. The entire process is opaque.
Israeli checkpoint in western Daraa Governorate | Image from SOHR
Though detentions are growing increasingly common, as the IDF stops farmers and shepherds to interrogate them on the roads of southwest Syria, holding people for that long appears to be highly unusual, though again the IDF doesn’t make a public record of who they’re holding and how long, so exactly how many others are still waiting on release isn’t clear.
On Tuesday, Israel launched multiple new operations in Quneitra and Daraa, establishing checkpoints and searching homes. Bulldozers and tanks were active around Maariyah, a village in Daraa, attempting to expand and reopen a dirt road that had fallen into disuse by the locals.
Though its unclear if this is related, two security forces members in western Daraa were reported injured when they were fired on by an unknown source near the city of Nawa.
