DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- Local sources in southern Syria say Israeli forces have established a new base on Eastern al-Ahmar hill in Quneitra governorate, according to a report by Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar. 
The hill lies adjacent to a nearby Israeli base established months earlier on the western side of the same ridge.
Local tribal sources told Al-Akhbar that Israeli forces are “rapidly working to turn it into a key operational hub,” prompting fears among residents of a repeat of the destruction in Al-Hamidiyah, where on 17 June, troops demolished 16 homes. 
A UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) patrol arrived ten days later only to assess the damage.
Israeli troops have also begun building a new outpost near Beer Ajam and stepped up patrols inside Syrian villages, including Abu Madrah farm near Saida al-Golan. 
Roads connecting villages within the Quneitra buffer zone have been destroyed, raising concerns that Israel intends to impose de facto borders. Residents now face the choice of fleeing or living under occupation.
The occupation has spread to other parts of southern Syria, including Hader and Mount Barbar, while UN forces remain confined to passive observation. The fate of 22 detained Syrians remains unknown, with UNDOF reportedly telling local officials that their release “depends on broader peace negotiations.”
The expansion comes as Israeli officials openly link normalization with Syria to retaining control of occupied territory, with foreign minister Gideon Saar declaring that Tel Aviv “will not withdraw from the Syrian [Mount] Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh).”
This followed security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi’s admission of ongoing daily talks with the current takfiri-linked regime in Damascus.
A day earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump lifted most sanctions
 on Syria, citing the “positive actions” of the new regime under Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, formerly the leader of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch. Conditions reportedly included normalization with Israel and the expulsion of Palestinian factions.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, an imminent Israeli-Syrian security agreement is expected to include several key components: an update to the 1974 disengagement agreement signed following the 1973 October War and intelligence coordination between Syria and Israel.
The Israeli military’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir “conducted a field tour” of the occupied Syrian territory, the military wrote on X Tuesday.
Zamir conducted a field tour and situation assessment today on Syrian soil, it said.
The normalization negotiations are said to include the Syrian side’s concession to Israel’s permanent rule over the occupied Golan Heights, a strategic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria that has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.