Israel launches new operation in Syria’s Quneitra

Israeli forces have launched a military operation in the villages of Ain Jiwan and al-Azraf in Quneitra, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in southern Syria. The Israeli military operation took place on Saturday (December 20) in the southern villages of Ain Jiwan and al-Azraf.
They have set up two military checkpoints there. According to the monitoring group ACLED, Israel has carried out more than 600 air and drone strikes across Syria in the past year, an average of at least two strikes per day. The latest operation comes a day after Israeli forces advanced on the towns of al-Asha, Bir Azzam, Barika, Umm al-Azzam and Ruwaihina in the southern Quneitra countryside, the Syrian news agency SANA reported.
Israeli forces have been making almost daily incursions into southern Syria, particularly Quneitra province, for months, carrying out arrests, setting up checkpoints and seizing land with bulldozers, fuelling growing public anger and unrest. Israeli interference in Syria has increased significantly since the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024. Al Jazeera.