Tension has flared up in southern Syria after Israel killed two unidentified men in the area, where the seizure of territory has hampered US efforts to advance negotiations between the neighbouring countries.
Israeli troops killed what it called two “armed terrorists” on Saturday inside the so-called security zone it has carved out since the fall of former president Bashar Al Assad, the Israeli military said.
The two men had approached a security fence separating Syria's Quneitra governorate from the occupied Golan Heights, and their bodies were taken by Israeli forces. It was the first killing in the area since a raid on Beit Jinn, a village in rural Damascus governorate, killed 13 people on November 28.
Although the Syrian government has stayed away from confrontation with the Israeli military, residents in the zone have resisted Israeli presence and incursions, either peacefully or by occasionally resorting to force.
The security zone, which spans parts of Deraa, Rural Damascus and Quneitra governorates, expanded a UN-mandated buffer zone between Syria and Israeli troops that have occupied the Golan Heights since the 1967 war.
A local source said the two men were in a car when they were killed and their identities remain unknown.
In the Yarmouk River valley to the south, the Israeli army advanced at the weekend into the village of Maariya, which is part of Deraa province and lies near Jordan. A force of two dozen Israeli soldiers also approached the nearby village of Aabdyn but were met by residents who pelted them with stones, forcing the troops to withdraw.
The Israeli army later shelled the outskirts of Aabdyn, incinerating one house. Several hundred residents fled to the nearby countryside. Damascus deployed 150 security personnel into the basin to ensure only residents entered the area, according to the source.
Syrian state news agency Sana said Israeli forces withdrew on Sunday from a hill near Aabdyn. The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned Israel for actions that had “terrorised” inhabitants of the area.
A source in Jordan said the recent flare-up was unexpected, given regular meetings between US presidential envoy Tom Barrack and Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara that have centred on restarting talks between Syria and Israel after several rounds of US-mediated discussions last year. Their last known meeting was in Damascus on May 16.
The source said that Mr Al Shara has no options but to restrain any armed resistance to Israel in the area, given the vulnerability of the regime in Damascus to Israeli aerial attacks. After the outbreak of the Iran war, Syrian authorities sent more forces to areas under their control near the Golan Heights to prevent any attacks on Israeli forces there by pro-Iranian remnants whom Tehran had cultivated while it expanded its reach inside Syria during the 2011–24 civil war.
Mr Barrack's influence on Israel is also limited because “the Israelis are not very comfortable with him” due to his ties with Turkey, the source said. Israeli-Turkish relations have deteriorated over the war in Gaza.
Since the ouster of the former Assad regime in December 2024, Ankara has been co-ordinating on Syria more closely with Riyadh, which has become more vocal in its criticism of Israeli policies in the Middle East.
A Saudi Foreign Ministry statement said on Monday that the kingdom “expresses its total rejection of intimidation of innocent civilians by the Israeli occupation forces”, calling on Israel to withdraw to the 1974 disengagement of forces line.
