Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 25.09.2026
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a doctoral student in political science at Princeton University and a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, who has been studying Syria for 18 years, recently visited southern Syria and this is what she saw and heard.
One night in early 2026, at 3 a.m., a Zionist military force broke into the home of the al-Bashir family in Quneitra province in southern Syria. The soldiers were looking for Zeid al-Bashir, who works as a laborer at a chicken farm. They searched the house and broke property, but Zeid was not home. Instead, the soldiers arrested Ali, his 16-year-old brother. They informed the family that Zeid had to turn himself in if Hot wanted to release his younger brother. Zeid refused to report. Eight months have passed since then, but the family has no information about Ali. Apparently, he is detained in Israel.
The occupation of southern Syria is two years old. The residents of southern Syria, who live in the territory occupied by Israel, describe the severe damage to their lives and the fear of the Zionist army forces. Those who were interviewed made conditional on changing their names. They are afraid of a response by the Zionist army of war criminals.
The greater the residents’ fear of Israel, the greater the hostility. In fact, the Zionist state is burying itself in a trap. The continuation of the brutal occupation by the Zionist human beasts – similar to the prolonged occupation of Lebanon that contributed to the rise of Hezbollah., is establishing enemies and haters in southern Syria and it is only a matter of time before there the Zionist army will face an armed resistance that the Zionist monster will call terrorists.
The Zionist soldiers who invaded the Al-Bashir family home are part of a permanent Zionist military force in southern Syria. Nine permanent outposts have been established, and the Zionist army conducts patrols, searches and arrests in an area of about 600 square kilometers, which includes dozens of villages and towns in Quneitra province and western Daraa province. Cynical army spokesmen say that the invasion is intended to prevent the growth of terrorist elements in areas adjacent to the fence on the border of the Golan Heights.
The activity of the Zionist army is the same as in the West Bank, where the violent resistance of individuals against the war criminals has already begun.
Immediately after the invasion, the Zionist monster destroyed about 17 houses in southern Syria. Some of these houses stood near the outposts established by the IDF, but isolated and remote houses were also destroyed. In addition to the construction of the nine outposts, most of them on hills that dominate the area, the army set up permanent checkpoints in areas close to the border. Sometimes the forces there are also establishing flying checkpoints. Residents say that the soldiers at the checkpoints check documents, photograph the faces of passersby, and even search their vehicles and mobile phones.
In addition to arrests at checkpoints, the Zionist army also invades residents’ homes, searches them and makes arrests. “They don’t knock on the door, they always break down the door,” said a journalist from Quneitra. Residents of the area testified that the searches were accompanied by the destruction of property. Khader, a resident of the Druze town of Druze, described a search of his brother’s house that took place at midnight and frightened the family. “They turned the washing machine over, turned the whole house upside down, and of course intimidated the family with weapons,” the resident said. “We in the village are not used to this. My nephew, who is not yet five years old, went back to defecate in his pants. Since that night, the boy has been in a state of anxiety.” Dozens of residents also reported looting of dollars, jewelry and even food.
Radical right-wing demonstrators call for the establishment of settlements in Syria as part of Greater Israel.
Occupied residents say that the Zionist army is recruiting local collaborators who write reports, some of them false, about the residents. They are the same people. The same people who used to write security reports during the era of Bashar and Hafez al-Assad and accuse the residents of collaborating with Israel. Today they are with Israel and bitterly accuse us of collaborating with Hezbollah.”
Released detainees say that during the arrest, they tried to recruit the detainees to be their collaborators.” Several detainees reported such offers.
More than 60 Syrians have been transferred to detention in Israel in the Sde Yemen camp, Ofer Prison, and Jalameh Prison. According to a Syrian lawyer who represents the Quneitra detainees before international human rights organizations, 39 Syrian detainees are still being held in Israel, including three minors and one person with a physical disability.
The released men said that their interrogations were sometimes conducted like a search for guilt, and that they were conducted on the basis of intelligence in connection to hostile activity. “They asked me about ties to Hezbollah, and who in the village works with Hezbollah,” said a resident of the Quneitra district who was detained for more than a year. “
Other detainees held in Sde Yemen described being tortured by guards as part of their prison routine, including starvation and prolonged shackling. A minority said they were tortured during interrogations in order to extract confessions. Abu Kanan al-Sayed, from Jabata al-Khashab, a town in northern Quneitra, told Syrian journalist Ahmed al-Masalameh about his detention in Sde Yemen: “Life in detention was a never-ending chain of humiliation. They forced us to sleep on our stomachs on the concrete floor, sometimes for an hour at a time, in the middle of the night or during the day. They would come in at 3 a.m. or 8 p.m. and set off stun grenades. They would force us to stay on our knees, with our heads on the ground, motionless, while they aimed rifles with lasers at us.” Abu Kinan was arrested along with his brother, son and nephew. He was released after 65 days in prison, after being interrogated for links to Hezbollah, without being charged.
One of the detainees who was released testified that the violence did not stop even after leaving the gates of the Yemen airport. “When we were released, we were transferred from the Yemeni field to Syria,” said a resident of Quneitra district tearfully about the six-and-a-half-hour journey. “All the way they beat us in the car, and I also stepped on his head.”
Druze citizens of Syria flee from tear gas fired by IDF soldiers to disperse them in July 2025. Residents say that the policy in the Druze communities has changed, and the Zionist army has begun confiscating weapons and conducting searches of homes
In addition to arrests and raids, the occupation is harming the livelihood of the residents of the area. About 90 percent of Syrians now live below the poverty line and earn less than $2.15 a day. 70 to 90 percent of Quneitra’s population lives on agriculture and livestock herding as a source of income, but the occupation has a direct impact on the residents’ ability to continue their work. Residents say Israel prevents farmers from accessing their land in areas along the border fence and in the Yarmouk Valley. A farmer from the village of Ma’aria said that “the Israelis prevent the farmers from going down to their land,” stressing, “We have no other source of income.”
Like the conduct in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, residents testify that the Zionist army forces fire, especially at night, artillery shells and mortar shells. This prevents them from going out to the fields and also restricts their movement in the area. This shooting has already killed dozens of sheep and goats. A reservist soldier who served in southern Syria told me that he was exposed there to the practice of aimless shooting intended to “demonstrate presence,” he said. “Because the army is so busy in many sectors, it doesn’t know how to make a separation,” the soldier said, “Things that are done in other arenas such as Lebanon to warn or keep hostile elements away are also bringing about this sector.”
Israel’s policy in southern Syria is part of a general policy to create buffer zones. In the case of Syria, occupying the buffer zone increases the risk to soldiers. This is a topographically inferior area compared to the line on the Golan Heights. Instead of being in fortified positions protected by trenches and observation and fire aid, the soldiers move around in a population that becomes more hostile with each arrest and search.
The Zionist Army Spokesperson told the usual lies: “The IDF is operating in the area of southern Syria in accordance with the assessment of the situation and security needs. The presence of IDF forces in the area is intended to protect the residents of the Golan Heights, maintain border security, and prevent the entrenchment and entry of hostile elements. As part of the IDF’s operation, over the past year various activities have been carried out, including the arrest of people suspected of involvement in terrorism. Suspects were taken for further questioning and held in a designated facility in Israeli territory. The detention of the detainees is regulated by the provisions of Israeli law and IDF orders, and everything is done in accordance with international law. Detainees who were found not to be involved in terrorist activity were released back to Syria.”[i]
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/2026-09-23/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/000001a0-cda2-de22-a3b8-fff25db00000