Rabat — Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) strike killed one person in a village in southern Syria’s Quneitra countryside on Tuesday, according to local media reports.
State-run Al Ikhbariya TV reported that the IOF struck a house in Turnejeh village, north of Quneitra, killing a young resident, marking the fourth Israeli raid in Quneitra during this month.
The channel also reported that Israeli troops conducted an overnight raid in the Suwayseh village in Quneitra the night before.
During that operation, the IOF fired flare shells into the sky and invaded the area, where they were confronted by residents. The forces illegally detained one young citizen during the raid.
The strike is especially an illegal move, as Quneitra sits within the disengagement zone in the occupied Golan Heights. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz posted on X that the IOF “will remain at the peak of Mount Hermon and in the security zone.”
He claimed the Israeli presence is aimed at protecting “the Golan and Galilee settlements” and the Druze community in Syria.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on its territories, decrying Israel’s “arrest campaigns against civilians in the town of Suwayseh, and their continued illegal deployment in Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) and the buffer zone.”
The ministry also urged the international community and the UN Security Council to “take urgent action to put an end to these ongoing violations,” describing the assault as a “flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, and relevant Security Council resolutions.”
For seven months, the IOF has occupied Mount Hermon and a 15-kilometer-wide security strip in parts of southern Syria.
The Israeli occupation of Syrian territories controls more than 40,000 Syrians living inside the seized buffer zone.
Following Bashar Al Assad’s regime fall in December 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone – a move that violated the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria.
The new Syrian administration took power in late December 2024 and has not threatened Israel.
Despite this, the IOF has repeatedly entered Syrian territory and launched airstrikes that killed civilians and destroyed military sites and infrastructure.
Israel has attacked Syria’s Damascus several times, especially during the Druze and Bedouin conflict that took place in July, claiming that it sought to protect the Druze community from the Syrian government.
