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Israeli troops stationed in southern Syria came under fire late on June 28 night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, marking the second clash on the front in recent days.
There were no casualties as a result of the incident, according to the IDF, which said that its troops returned fire and launched mortars in the area, and a helicopter carried out a strike in an open area.
The Syrian state-run SANA news agency said that the incident took place in the town of Aabdyn in the western Daraa countryside after the local residents blocked the roads in the face of Israeli troops. Most of the town’s residents were displaced by Israeli shelling overnight, but the news agency said that they returned in the morning.
Israeli troops were reportedly advancing towards Tell al-Mughar, a strategic hell located outside the buffer zone in the western Daraa countryside, where a day earlier they set up tents.
The IDF invaded the buffer zone adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights in the governorate of al-Qunitra right after the fall of the regime of former president, Bashar al-Assad, more than a year ago, and has since established a series of nine posts there.
Since then, Israeli troops have conducted operations in al-Qunitra, as well as in the neighboring governorates of Daraa and Rif Dimashq on a regular basis.
These operations created some tensions with the locals, which escalated into clashes on more than one occasion in the past.
Just a day earlier, Israeli troops killed two gunmen inside the buffer zone. The pair, described by the IDF as “armed terrorists,” were identified approaching Israel from an area near the Druze town of Hader, around a kilometer from the Israel-Syria border. Troops stationed in the area fired on the pair, killing them and then capturing their bodies.
Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “condemned in the strongest terms” the two nighttime incidents, and warned that Israel’s “aggressive practices” were undermining the Syrian government’s progress in “consolidating security and stability” across the country, less than two years after a brutal 14-year civil war.
Over the past year, several rounds of talks between Israel and Syria were held, with the United States leading mediation efforts. The talks failed to produce a security agreement, however.
The latest escalation comes amid reports of an upcoming round of talks, also mediated by the U.S. While an agreement remains highly unlikely, Syria is not expected to challenge Israel. Still, the population in the south of the country appears to be growing frustrated with this passive attitude.
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no one can save syria
i would have mocked putler and erdogan if ghassan alian had stolen damascus and sweida.
https://hawarnews.com/ar/143441
to say something you read all the time in the western commentsections about the ukrainian war.
“the agressor only needs to retreat and it would no longer be attacked.”