An Israeli occupation army tank crosses into the buffer zone near the UN Quneitra checkpoint, in the Golan Heights.
AFP
According to Syria's state news agency SANA, more than 10 Israeli military vehicles entered the area between Maariya and Abidin in western Deraa province before advancing to the outskirts of the village. Residents reported fear and panic as troops searched several homes while military vehicles manoeuvred around Israeli positions in the region.
The raid was the latest episode in what Syrian authorities describe as an almost daily pattern of Israeli air strikes, ground incursions, arrests, and military operations across the country's south.
But behind the recurring operations lies a broader transformation that stretches far beyond the villages along the border.
Even as a US-Iran memorandum of understanding aimed at ending hostilities across multiple fronts has raised hopes of de-escalation elsewhere in the region, Israeli leaders have increasingly signalled that their country's military occupation in Syria is not temporary and could expand further.
An investigation by Al Jazeera's Open Source Unit published in May found that Israeli military positions established beyond the Alpha Line separating the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria have gradually formed a continuous strip stretching from Jabal al-Shaykh or Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmouk River near the Jordanian border.
Using satellite imagery, geographic information systems, and data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), the investigation estimated that about 235 square kilometres of southern Syrian territory are currently under direct Israeli military control.
The findings also documented more than 800 Israeli incursions beyond the buffer zone between 8 December 2024 and 16 January 2026, suggesting that Israeli military activity extends well beyond fixed outposts and into a broader operational area.
Among the deepest operations recorded was a raid reaching approximately 63 kilometres inside Syrian territory near Horsh al-Jubailiya in the Deraa countryside in April 2025.
Unlike Gaza and southern Lebanon, where ceasefire agreements produced maps and clearly defined lines of Israeli control, no such official boundaries exist in Syria. Instead, Al Jazeera's investigation concluded that the map of Israeli influence has emerged from the ground up, with permanent military infrastructure and repeated incursions creating a fluid but expanding sphere of control.
The shift accelerated after the collapse of Assad's government in December 2024. Israel declared the 1974 Disengagement Agreement effectively void and moved forces into the buffer zone, while Damascus insisted it remained committed to the accord and demanded a full Israeli withdrawal.
Israeli officials have since made increasingly explicit statements about their intentions.
Following the US-Iran memorandum, signed on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tel Aviv would not withdraw from territory it occupies in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza.
On Thursday, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli went further.
"We will wage war on Syria, sooner or later, because it and Turkiye are far more worrying than Iran," he told Israeli radio station 103FM, describing what he called a new regional axis involving Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan as a greater strategic threat than the rehabilitation of Iran itself.
The comments came as Washington sought to consolidate a fragile regional understanding with Tehran to end the US-Israeli war on Iran and enforce a ceasefire in the Israeli war on Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump also thrust Syria into the centre of regional discussions at the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains, when he suggested Israel should allow Syria to "take care of Hezbollah" in Lebanon.
Speaking to reporters in France, Trump said he believed Damascus could do "a better job" against the Lebanese group.
Lebanese Justice Minister Adel Nassar swiftly rejected the proposal.
"It is not about having foreign troops doing the job," Nassar told CNN. "Lebanon suffered for years from interference from others."
The exchange highlighted how Syria is increasingly appearing in discussions that extend beyond its own borders.
While Gaza remains the epicentre of Israel's war, closely followed by southern Lebanon, Syria has emerged as the least constrained arena for Israeli military action, with systematic violations of the 1974 agreement.
Damascus has called on the international community to compel Israel to withdraw from Syrian territory and warned that continued incursions threaten to further destabilize the country's south.
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