Israel is holding 49 Syrians and carried out 280 armed incursions into southern Syria in September, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Released detainees alleged torture and ill-treatment, including beatings, prolonged forced standing and threats against their families, said a statement from Mr Volker's office on Friday.
He called on Israeli authorities to halt such actions. The statement said September marked the highest monthly number of armed Israeli incursions since the beginning of the year, according to open-source monitoring.
The incursions include “reported raids on homes, restrictions on movement, harassment and intimidation of civilians, arbitrary detention and destruction of livelihoods”, the office said.
Forty-nine Syrians remain in Israeli detention, according to information received by the office, although it said it could not independently verify the number.
The statement called on Israeli authorities to “cease actions that harass or intimidate civilians in Syrian villages, including raids, restrictions on freedom of movement, detention and destruction of crops”.
The remarks by Mr Turk's office come as Syria accuses Israel of building major military fortifications in Syrian territory along the occupied Golan Heights. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said that Israel was working to complete its “Sufa 53 Line”, in violation of previous agreements.
Areas near the Golan Heights have experienced an increasing number of Israeli incursions this year. Israeli troops crossed into southern Syria and areas west of Damascus, and occupied parts of those regions, soon after rebel forces led by current President Ahmad Al Shara ousted the regime of Bashar Al Assad in December 2024.
The US, which backs Syria's current rulers, has supervised several meetings between Israeli and Syrian officials in an effort to negotiate a peace deal between the two countries. They discussed halting Israeli attacks on Syria and the return of Israeli forces to the 1974 armistice line adjacent to the Golan Heights.
