LONDON: Israeli forces entered Syria’s northern Quneitra countryside on Sunday, setting up a temporary checkpoint and searching passersby, as work continued on a military barrier further south, Syria’s state news agency Sana reported.
Several military vehicles advanced along the road linking the town of Jubata al-Khashab and the village of Ain Al-Bayda, where troops established the checkpoint before withdrawing.
The operation followed a similar incursion on Saturday near the Al-Kassarat junction outside Jubata Al-Khashab. Israeli forces also detained three people during an incursion into northern Quneitra that day, Sana reported.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued bulldozing farmland west of Al-Hanout Farm in southern Quneitra as part of work on the “Sufa 53” line.
A Sana correspondent said that the work involved building a raised bank, or berm, across privately owned agricultural land, raising concerns about access to farmland west of the barrier.
The latest work followed the bulldozing of about 13,000 sq. meters of olive groves in the Al-Hanout area near the village of Saida on Oct. 18. Israeli forces also prevented residents from reaching their remaining fields to harvest olives.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the construction of the berm as a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement and relevant international resolutions. It reaffirmed the Syrian Arab Republic’s sovereignty over its territory and urged the international community to protect the country’s borders.
Israel reportedly began work on the line within Quneitra’s disengagement zone in mid-2022. Construction accelerated and expanded after the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2024, alongside Israeli incursions extending hundreds of meters into parts of the separation zone.
Damascus has repeatedly demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Syria, saying its incursions, raids, detentions, land clearance and shelling violate the disengagement agreement.
It has also called on the international community to press Israel to withdraw, maintaining that Israeli measures on Syrian territory have no legal effect under international law.