DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Israeli forces entered the southwestern Syrian city of Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Sunday after militant groups took control of the Arab country.
The Israeli media reported the incursion following heavy shelling of surrounding areas.
“Israeli forces pushed into the buffer zone in the Quneitra area, and launched artillery shelling in the area,” the website of the Times of Israel newspaper said.
The Zionist regime’s media also reported the entry of Israeli tanks into Khan Arnabeh, which is to the northeast of Quneitra and five kilometers from the border of the occupied Golan.
Quneitra is within the so-called buffer zone established in 1974 between the occupied Golan and Syria, but Khan Arnabeh is beyond that and the regime’s forces are not allowed to enter.
The resistance media confirmed reports of the Israeli aggression and said the development took place after the regime increased its deployment in the occupied Golan ahead of the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus.
Local reports said schools were canceled in four settlements in the occupied Golan due to the “security situation,” adding that the Israeli military had set up checkpoints in the area.
At least four airstrikes targeted the Quneitra countryside after the Israeli tanks entered the area.
The occupation forces were also reported to be digging a large trench on the Syrian border and have destroyed what they claim are weapons depots.
The Israeli occupation army declared that in light of the developments in Syria, it had deployed forces to key areas in the occupied Golan Heights.
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid also said, “In light of the developments in Syria, it is more important than ever to form a strong regional alliance with Saudi Arabia and the Abraham Accords countries.”
The Abraham Accords, brokered by the U.S., saw four Arab nations – the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – establish diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020.
Zionist officials have long sought to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, but Riyadh said that it will establish ties only after ending the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
“The Iranian axis has weakened significantly, and Israel needs to strive for a comprehensive political achievement that will also help it in Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” Lapid claimed.
The Zionist regime has launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas operation last October, killing more than 44,600 people, most of them women and children, and injuring nearly 106,000.
The second year of the genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with officials and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
On November 21, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former war minister Yoav Gallant for war 
crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Suspected Israeli strikes hit Mazzeh district of Damascus, one Lebanese and one Syrian security source said on Sunday.
Jets believed to be Israeli bombed the Khalkhala air base in southern Syria that was evacuated by the Syrian army overnight, two regional security sources told Reuters.
The Israeli media revealed that the Zionist regime is in “direct contact” with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) armed group in Syria.
Israel’s leading news website Walla said Tel Aviv has “direct and indirect contact” with numerous groups in Syria, including the HTS.