Smart borders, military gates and land seizures: How Israel is encroaching in southern Syria

“Smart borders, military gates and land seizures: How Israel is encroaching in southern Syria Submitted by Reem Aouir on Mon, 05/04/2026 - 10:41 Report by Sijil Centre reveals Israel's systematic violations in the territory and how security is used as a guise to grab land and resources Israeli troops and military vehicles cross in and out of Syria through a gate in the boundary fence near the Druze village of Majdal Shams on the occupied Golan Heights, 15 December 2024 (Mati Milstein/NurPhoto) Off Israeli military forces carried out at least 1,672 violations inside Syrian territory between August 2025 and May 2026, according to a report by a Syrian research and monitoring organisation. Data shared with Middle East Eye by the Sijil Centre revealed that Israeli violations in Syria escalated sharply following the latest US -Israel war on Iran . March 2026 marked an unprecedented escalation, with Israeli forces carrying out more than 321 military operations, including 121 aerial actions, and detaining 41 civilians, representing the highest monthly totals to date. On 8 December 2024, hours after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government, Israeli forces launched a large-scale ground operation into Syria aimed at capturing the buffer zone between the two countries. Israeli forces pushed across the 1974 ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights, advancing into military positions in southern Syria, marking the first major ground breach since the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Israel seized control of the UN-monitored buffer zone and occupied large parts of the demilitarised zone, which extends over 75 kilometres in length and ranges in width from 10 kilometres in the centre to 200 metres in the far south, advancing deeper into parts of western Daraa and Quneitra provinces. In the first 48 hours of Assad's fall, 350 square kilometres of territory had already been captured, extending from Mount Hermon in the north to a strip of Daraa’s Yarmouk Basin in the south. At the same time, Israeli fighter jets launched at least 350 air strikes across multiple Syrian provinces, targeting dozens of military aircraft, air defence systems, and weapons depots. In an interview with Middle East Eye, Hamza Ghadban, head of the Sijil Centre, said Israel has since built nine military bases and is believed to be building a 10th. 'Silent strangulation' Since the government's collapse, the international community has largely looked away as Israel has carried out an unprecedented campaign of military expansion into southern Syria. In March and April 2025, Israel conducted two ground operations deep into southern Syria. Golan Heights: Why the Israeli-occupied Syrian territory matters Read More » The first targeted Koya village in the Yarmouk Basin of western Daraa; the second, pushed into Nawa, a town in the Daraa countryside that had been a flashpoint during the Syrian war. Clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Syrian fighters following both incursions, resulting in casualties. Ghadban said the Israeli army gradually shifted away from large-scale ground operations toward a "silent strangulation": a sustained series of raids, incursions, and the establishment of military checkpoints. The zone of operations, Ghadban said, has remained consistent: a triangular area extending approximately 15 kilometres from the 1974 demilitarisation line into Syrian territory. "It spans from Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmouk Basin in the south and 15 kilometres into the depths of Syria," Ghadban said. "You kind of have this triangle that is the hotspot for Israeli activities in Syria." February 2026 saw a noticeable escalation in "serious operations", characterised by killings, detentions, house raids and shellings. A significant increase was recorded in targeted house raids, focusing on specific homes and individuals, with residents often gathered at checkpoints, subjected to verbal insults, and, at times, physical brutality. Hotspots and corridors Sijil’s field researchers have documented a detailed operational geography that reveals the strategy underpinning Israel’s presence in southern Syria. The internal document seen by MEE said that "more than 80 percent of all documented violations are heavily concentrated in the Quneitra governorate, making it the primary operational theatre, followed by Daraa and Rif Dimashq (Damascus countryside)." "Within Quneitra, the rate of incursions is significantly higher in the northern and central countryside compared to the south, largely due to topographical factors and population density," the data analysis added. Syria says Israeli helicopter involved in attack on southern Quneitra province Read More » The Israeli incursion into Quneitra is divided into three geographical zones, with central Quneitra recording the highest density and intensity of military operations across all categories of violations. Northern Quneitra, including areas such as Jubata al-Khashab, Ufaniya, and Khan Arnaba, also sees a significant concentration of operations. Southern Quneitra, meanwhile, is systematically targeted, particularly against sheep herders grazing near the boundary line in villages such as Saida al-Hanout, al-Asbah, and al-Awesha. Satellite images from December 2024 and November 2025 showa chain-like formation of military outposts and fortified positions the full length of the Quneitra countryside. The two northernmost sites, Jubata al-Khashab and al-Hamidiya, 2.3 km apart, form a dense military cluster that controls the northern approaches into the operational zone. After razing about 2,500 dunams of forest and agricultural land in Jubata al-Khashab, Israeli forces established a military outpost, which was later expanded into a fortified military base. In al-Hamidiya, the occupation forces demolished 16 homes for a new military base that was built in around 50 days, resulting in the displacement of 12 families. The area was later turned into a monitoring and control point west of the province's centre. Satellite images illustrate Israeli advances in Syria one year after the fall of Assad (Sijil Centre) Al-Adnaniyah, southwest of al-Manṭarah Dam in the central countryside of Quneitra, has become a pivotal point in the Israeli occupation’s expansion network, where a new military base was established. The site has since facilitated the spread of the network across central Quneitra, linking the new bases into a single engineering network. The Western Red Hill is a strategic vantage point overlooking the Quneitra countryside, as well as the western and northern countryside of Daraa. It previously served as a military position under the Assad government. Israeli forces have sought to control it, turning it into an advanced military position with extensive firepower and visual surveillance deep into the south. Satellite images illustrate Israeli advances in Syria one year after the fall of Assad (Sijil Centre) In the Yarmouk Basin, residential neighbourhoods in the villages of Maariya, Jamlah, Abdeen and Kuwaya have endured repeated Israeli night raids, with residents temporarily detailed. The analysis shows that Israeli operations in Daraa are "lower in number but are highly qualitative, consisting primarily of selective artillery shelling and targeted midnight raids rather than broad military sweeps." "The area that links the countryside together and the area close to military bases are hotspots," Ghadban told MEE. Israeli forces have relied on frontline villages as key tactical corridors and entry points to advance deep into Syrian territory. In the central countryside, villages such as Bir Ajam, Bariqa, and Ruwayhina serve as primary crossing sites; while in the south, Kodna is the main route utilised for incursions. "Furthermore, operations and security patrols are heavily concentrated at geographical nodes that connect the rural areas to one another, specifically around al-Samdaniyah, in the central countryside, Jabata al-Khashab, and Ufaniya in the northern countryside," the analyst said. Security belt Beyond these corridors, Sijil has documented four military "gates", each serving a distinct operational function. Abu Ghithar Gate, a crossing point on the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the Quneitra and Daraa countryside in southern Syria, is the exclusive entry point for armoured vehicles heading into Wadi al-Raqqad in western Daraa. Al-Asbah Gate provides a direct route toward the village of al-Rafid, while al-Razaniyah Gate serves as the primary entry point into the Saida al-Hanout area. Majdal Shams Gate, meanwhile, is reserved for heavy military convoys heading toward the Qurs al-Naf base. According to the report, Israel is systematically constructing a continuous geographic security belt, "an arc stretching from the north to the south of the region", driven by the strategic occupation of key natural elevations, enabling uninterrupted reconnaissance and comprehensive fire control across southern Syria. Environmental genocide Sijil also documented a systematic spraying of unidentified chemical substances across agricultural and grazing lands near the buffer strip, which Ghadban described as an "environmental genocide". The first incident was recorded in January, targeting the villages of Kudna, al-Asha, and al-Asbah in the southern countryside of Quneitra. The aircraft reportedly continued flying for around four consecutive hours, releasing an unidentified substance. How Israeli media are normalising colonial land grabs in Syria Read More » By late January, the spraying had expanded to the northern countryside of Quneitra. The aerial spraying campaign along the 1974 ceasefire line covered a distance exceeding 65 kilometres, resulting in widespread damage within days. "Vast stretches of green land had withered. In the southern Quneitra countryside alone, an estimated 3,500 dunums of pasture land were affected, including 1,500 dunums of woodland whose trees had previously been cut down by occupation forces at the beginning of 2025," the report said. Hundreds of farmers and sheep herders have been directly affected in communities where agriculture and livestock form the backbone of local livelihoods. Ghadban said such actions constitute an attempt to "silently displace people by killing their means of living, their income sources". Syria’s Ministry of Agriculture said in February that tests carried out in Quneitra didn’t show acute levels of toxicity, but did not specify what chemicals had been sprayed on the land. Lebanon has also recorded military spraying along the border; the substance was identified as glyphosate, a herbicide classified by the World Health Organisation as "probably carcinogenic to humans". The $1.7bn border barrier In early 2026, Israel announced a $1.7bn project to construct a wall extending 500 kilometres along the borders with both Syria and Jordan . The so-called "Eastern Border Security Barrier" would extend from the southern Golan Heights to the Samar Dunes just north of Eilat, the southernmost tip of Israel, creating a continuous line of fortification. According to Sijil, Israel signed an $80m deal with Ondas Holdings, an American technology company, and its Israeli subsidiary 4M Defence, ostensibly for demining the area. However, an analysis by the organisation concluded that demining is "only a cover" for the construction of AI-managed "smart borders" using sensor networks, drones (such as Optimus), and ground-based robots. "They have done so many topographical changes that go beyond simple demining," Ghadban said, adding that the scale of equipment deployed suggests it is designed for long-term use beyond demining operations. "So, a lot of AI systems, anti-drawing systems, that they can simply keep in place to secure the borders. This makes us think that they might want to rely less on the human side of things and more on the technology side of things." Ghadban also linked the new security barrier to the ‘Sufa 53’ project, a military road in the Quneitra province, running parallel to the ceasefire line, that Israel began constructing in mid-2022. Together, he said, the two projects create a permanent fortified corridor under the supervision of the newly established 96th ‘Gilad’ Division, assigned to protect the tri-border area with Jordan and Syria. A map depicting the full extent of the 'Eastern Border Security Barrier', shown with the red line (Sijil Centre) Ghadban said the construction of the "smart border" is intended to strengthen security as Israel plans to expand settlement in Katzrin, often referred to as "Golan’s first city". On 17 April 2026, the Israeli cabinet approved legislation to facilitate the relocation of approximately 3,000 settlers to the Golan Heights by 2030. Katzrin is currently the second-most-populated settlement in the region, after Majdal Shams. Israeli expansion Israeli officials have become increasingly explicit about their objectives regarding Syrian territory. On 9 April, far-right finance minister and settlement advocate Bezalel Smotrich said, "There will be a conclusive political leg in Syria with the Hermon Crown and the buffer zone at least", referring to the strategic summit area of Mount Hermon, part of the occupied Golan Heights overlooking southern Syria and Lebanon. Smotrich added that this would expand Israel’s borders alongside similar operations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Why Israel's expanding occupation in Syria presents a critical legal test Read More » Defence Minister Israel Katz reiterated this stance, declaring that Israel "will not move a millimetre from Syria". The Syrian government has historically failed to mount any meaningful response in regard to the historically marginalised regions under Hafez and Bashar al-Assad's rule. Ghadban explained that this situation has not changed: "That sadly continued so far. People complain that we can’t meet with any officials. There are no new jobs, economic, or agricultural opportunities." There has been no formal contact or offers of compensation or reparation from the new Syrian government to affected communities, according to Sijil. Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Ibrahim Olabi, has recently addressed the Security Council and accused Israeli forces of "terrorising civilians, enforced disappearances, home raids, and ongoing encroachments into the separation zone". On the ground, there have been small signs of government engagement. After a 17-year-old boy was killed in an Israeli strike on 3 April, Syrian officials visited the area and carried out land and road repairs, in a move "that hasn’t happened at all before", according to Ghadban. Syria after Assad News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

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