Israel's military presence growing in Syria
The recent Israeli attack on a Syrian airbase is just one of many Israeli incursions into Syria. In southern Syria, locals say Israeli troops have detained them, destroyed infrastructure and set up military bases.
Families of the Syrians from Quneitra who have been kidnapped Israel protest regularly outside the UNDOF offices
It's been two years, four months, 24 days and five hours, said Syrian man Ahmad Hassan al-Din when asked how long it's been since he last saw his son.
In April 2024, Israeli soldiers took Saddam, who had just turned 17, from farmland near the Golan Heights, a part of Syria Israel has occupied since 1967.
"Saddam had gone to feed the animals early in the morning," al-Din, who's from the village of Jubata al-Khashab in the Quneitra district near Golan, told DW. "I called him on the phone, and he told me, 'Everything's fine.' But then later we saw with our own eyes how they took the boy, handcuffed and shackled."
Al-Din filmed Israeli soldiers marching his son through fields. The video, which he forwarded to DW, has previously been verified by open-source investigators at
France24 and by human rights organizations.
"They said they took him because he was trespassing on the territory of the state of Israel," al-Din continued. "Even though that area is our farmland and we have a valid UN permit to work there."
To enter this buffer area, Syrian farmers and shepherds needed a special pass from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, or UNDOF. The latter was set up to make sure Israeli and
Syrian forces kept their distance after a 1974 disengagement agreement.
Humanitarian organizations have since discovered Saddam, now 19, is likely in a prison in Israel.
DW asked the Israeli military what Saddam had been charged with and under which legal system. A spokesperson sent DW a statement similar to one previously sent to other media outlets and human rights organizations that said Israel detains Syrians that it suspects might wish it harm. The statement did not specify whether the army considered the farmer's son to be one of those individuals.
Israel takes over buffer zone
Since Saddam was taken, the Syrian teenager's story has become one of many similar accounts in this part of
southern Syria.
After the
fall of the country's dictatorial Assad regime in December 2024, Israel took control of the UN-patrolled demilitarized zone. Senior Israeli politicians declared the 1974 agreement void and said
troops would be in the area temporarily to protect Israel from cross-border attacks.
However, since then Israel's presence in Syria has become more permanent. In November 2025,
UNDOF told reporters Israel had set up 10 bases in the area. From these bases, Israeli soldiers are making near-daily incursions into the Syrian provinces of Daraa and Quneitra.
"These incursions typically involve armored patrols through populated areas, followed by the establishment of temporary checkpoints on main roads, where all passing Syrian civilians are stopped, searched, questioned, and have their phones examined. In some cases, biometric data is also collected," Syrian consultancy,
Karam Shaar Advisory, wrote in January.
Israeli soldiers have also raided homes, businesses and schools and fenced off farmland and water sources.
Quneitra authorities sent DW a statement claiming Israeli troops had seized more than 200 sheep, destroyed drinking water wells, razed horticultural areas and destroyed buildings.
Mousa Khalil, a resident of Quneitra, recounted how his home, a two-story building with four apartments in Hamidiyah village, was completely destroyed by Israeli troops last year.
"I am 65 years old," he told DW. "At this age, finding decent work has become extremely difficult, forcing me to accept whatever I can find to provide for my family of eight and to save money to rebuild our home."
Increased Israel incursions
Over the past few months, the number of these kinds of incursions has been rising, and
Israeli soldiers have also been moving farther inside Syria.
The
Sijil Center, based in Syria, documents Israeli violations of Syrian territory. Between August 25 and December 31, 2025, the center recorded 818 incidents, or 45 incidents per week. Since the beginning of this year, the center has counted 1,632 incursions, bringing the average to 48 incidents weekly.
The Sijil Center also documents how many Syrians have been detained by Israel and says that, since December 2024, around 200 people have been apprehended. Unlike al-Din's son, most were released within 24 hours after being interrogated.
What happens next?
Recent history shows that Israeli security zones often turn into permanently occupied or annexed territories, said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Locals like Khalil from Hamidiyah have complained that their own government isn't helping them.
But in fact, in the face of Israel's military superiority, the Syrians are probably doing the best they can, Hellyer told DW. "They're continuing on the diplomatic track because they know very well that they have no military option here," he said.
"All this is part and parcel of what I would describe as Israeli paramountcy," Hellyer added, referring to a concept that describes how powerful states override weaker ones by sheer force of arms. "It basically means they are paramount. They have the ability to do what they want. Nobody has the ability to say no, and laws and rules are out the window, without any consensus building at all," he concluded.
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NOTE: Syria of al Jewlani(also called al
zionlani) is over, he's just another puppet. Israel is advancing unopposed, and Jewlani should start falling from the government when Michelle Obama takes over.
Jewlani is the new Bin Laden, the new Saddam Hussein, a character invented by the CIA and Mossad, later used as justification for an occupation.
NOTE2: During the war in Syria, when al-Jewlani's sister fell ill, al-Jewlani requested that
his sister be treated in
Israeli hospitals, and part of the Israeli government was going to agree, but another part vetoed it.