LONDON (Dispatches) -- 
Israeli forces occupying Syria carried out 20 incursions and military movements in the southern governorates of Deraa and Quneitra in just the past week, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
During the incursions, Israeli troops conducted land-clearing operations, erected checkpoints, installed surveillance cameras, and carried out aerial reconnaissance, while imposing “new realities on the ground along the border strip,” SOHR wrote.
The majority of the Israeli movements were concentrated in the Wadi al-Raqad and Yarmouk Basin areas in the western Deraa countryside, including in the villages of Maariya and Kuya and their surroundings.
Israeli operations also took place in the town of Jabata al-Khashab and the villages of Al-Samdaniyah and Al-Ajraf in the Quneitra countryside, where Israeli forces conducted field deployments and patrols within border villages and towns.
In Wadi al-Raqad, Israeli vehicles and tanks entered populated areas through the Tel Abu al-Ghithar and Kafr Lama gates, while firing heavy machine guns toward agricultural lands and secondary roads in the surrounding area.
In the Quneitra countryside, Israeli troops entered the towns of Jabata al-Khashab, Al-Ajraf, and Al-Samdaniyah al-Sharqiyah, establishing temporary checkpoints and installing surveillance cameras on main roads.
SOHR documented four instances of Israeli drone and helicopter flights over the Yarmouk Basin, the Deraa and Quneitra governorates, Khan Arnabeh, and its surroundings.
Israeli forces conducted land leveling and clearing operations, as well as the construction and repair of border roads in Wadi al-Raqad and the Yarmouk Basin, using heavy engineering equipment.
In southern Syria, Israeli forces have blocked farmers from their land with chemicals, bulldozing, and arrests. More than half the country faces a hunger crisis, and international aid has been halved.
SOHR warned that Israel is escalating its military activity in southern Syria.
“There are fears that this activity is creating new realities on the ground and gradually altering the border strip, in the absence of any international measures to deter these violations and ensure respect for Syrian sovereignty,” SOHR stated.
Israel is occupying Syria in a bid to control its water resources and expand the borders of Greater Israel to prepare the way for Jewish settlement.
Israeli forces have been able to occupy and enter territory in southern Syria without resistance from Syrian forces, led by self-appointed president Abu Muhammad al-Jolani.
Jolani, the former Al-Qaeda and Daesh commander, came to power in Damascus in December 2024 after the collapse of the Syrian army and the government led by president Bashar al-Assad.
Israel exploited the opportunity to expand its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, including a UN buffer zone, and Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Kheikh), and to bomb Syria’s air defense systems and heavy weapons.
In a visit to the strategic Jabal al-Sheikh after Assad’s fall, Israel’s terrorist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that he had helped install Jolani in power, who was previously known as the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Jolani has refused to allow troops from the new Syrian army, which is led by Salafist extremists from HTS, to confront Israeli troops carrying out incursions on Syrian territory.
Instead, his forces have focused on targeting members of Syria’s Alawite and Druze religious minorities, including carrying out major massacres in March 2025 and July 2025 in the coastal areas of Syria and in Suwayda Governorate.