Israeli Troops Raid Southwest Syria Villages, Interrogate Shepherds, Detain Farm Worker
Israeli forces were reported to have conducted multiple raids today into southwest Syria’s Quneitra and Daraa Governorates. The raids involved the establishment of a checkpoint near the village of Jamleh, and the interrogation of multiple shepherds in rural Daraa.
In Daraa, a lot of the operations involved the area around the al-Yarmouk Basin, an important watershed along the Syria-Jordan border. Israel’s operations in southwest Syria have shown increased interest in agriculture areas and water supplies.
None of the west Daraa shepherds were reported to have been detained beyond the interrogation, however the same can’t be said for a farm worker in Quneitra’s al-Rafid, who was reportedly captured by the Israeli forces and held for hours at an unknown location before being released.
Israeli troops block the road in southwest Syria | Image from SOHR
Even getting held incommunicado for a few hours and being released leaves that worker better off than dozens of other people from Quneitra, who have been captured and taken to an unidentified site colloquially known as Israeli Guantanamo, where they are asked about Iran and about Hezbollah, according to people who have been released from there after days or even weeks of detention.
Some don’t come back at all. Some families have been agitating for the UN or human rights groups to get involved, because their relatives were detained for unknown reasons and were never seen again. Their fates are unknown.
So, indeed, is the reason they were captured in the first place. The IDF has been remarkably opaque about its Syrian operations. Early 2025 raids centered on them bragging about all the weapons they seized from locals, but as operations grow to include seemingly arbitrary detention, the IDF almost never comments on anything they’re doing in Syria at all. The number of raids have only grown, but what Israel aims to accomplish is so far unclear and unspoken.
Comments
Post a Comment