Villagers flee homes as Israeli forces sweep through Ma'ariya in southern Syria

Israeli military forces have gone on a shooting spree in a village in Syria’s southern Dara’a province, forcing locals to leave their homes.

The television news channel al-Ikhbariyah Syria reported that the occupation soldiers opened fire toward residential areas in different parts of the village of Ma’ariya.

So far, there have been no reports of casualties.

After the collapse of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024, Israel has launched frequent aerial assaults across Syria and ground incursions in the southern part of the country.

Israel has also set up numerous checkpoints in Syria and abducted its citizens. The usurping entity has further expanded control over the occupied Golan Heights, taking over a demilitarized buffer zone in violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

The UN and various Arab countries have censured Israel for exploiting the disorder in Syria to violate the country’s sovereignty and acquire land.

Despite promises by Syria’s ruling Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime to collaborate with Tel Aviv, Israel has consistently refused to end its illegal occupation of Syrian territory and repeated attacks.

Israeli forces invade Syria’s Quneitra countryside with tanks, military vehicles in latest incursion

Israeli forces invade an area in the suburbs of the city of Quneitra in southern Syria with tanks and military vehicles.

On Wednesday, Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz said that the regime’s army will not withdraw from what he called “security zones” in Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip.

Speaking in a video statement delivered from an occupied region in southern Lebanon, Katz added that he had instructed the Israeli military to “take all the necessary steps to prepare for a long-term presence in the area.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already made it clear that the Zionist military will not withdraw from territories it occupied in southern Syria after the fall of Assad in Syria on December 8, 2024..

"We want to preserve these assets," he said in December 2025, referring to Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon) and the buffer zone adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel has held since 1967.

Israel began destroying military infrastructure and expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights after the fall of President Assad.

Israeli forces entered the buffer zone near the Golan Heights and pushed the occupation further, advancing to within 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) of Damascus.

Forays by Israeli settler groups into southern Syria have recently became a regular occurrence. Extremist groups, with members numbering in the dozens, have crossed to Syria every few days.

Last month, an Israeli settler acknowledged that he and others were present in an area of southern Syria “day and night”, claiming it “belongs to the people of Israel according to the Holy Torah”.

The remarks were carried by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.

The most prominent of the groups behind the incursions in Syria is known as “Pioneers of Bashan.”

Formed early last year, the Pioneers of Bashan are a group of right-wing settlers aiming to establish Jewish settlements inside Syria. They are named after the biblical region of Bashan, which includes part of modern-day Syria and neighboring Jordan.

They have their sights set on an area of southwestern Syria that includes the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Sweida.

Part of the area, including the summit of Jabal al-Shaeikh, is a “buffer zone” Israel declared in December 2024, soon after the ouster of President Assad in a Takfiri offensive.

Amos Azaria, a Pioneers of Bashan leader, told the Associated Press the group aims to establish a “humanitarian corridor” from Israel to the Druze enclave of Sweida by depopulating adjacent Sunni-majority areas.

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