DAMASCUS - An Israeli drone struck a car near Beit Jinn on August 22, injuring a Syrian man identified in local reports as Ammar Saeed Hamada, as Israel pressed military operations in southern Syria that it says are needed to stop attacks on its territory.
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The Israeli military described Hamada as a terrorist in the advanced stages of preparing an attack who posed an immediate threat to its soldiers, but did not publicly provide evidence supporting that characterization.
A local security source quoted by the Syrian news organization Enab Baladi said Hamada was conducting private business rather than carrying out a military mission. Syrian media reported that the strike severely injured his hand.
The Foreign Ministry in Damascus condemned the attack as a violation of Syrian sovereignty. The conflicting accounts could not be independently reconciled.
Hamada is a cousin of Muhammad Hamada and Ali Qasim Hamada, two men detained during an Israeli operation in Beit Jinn in November. Ali was later released, while Muhammad remains in custody.
During that operation, Israeli forces sought men the military identified as members of Jamaa al-Islamiyya, a Sunni Islamist organization. Syrian state media said 13 Syrians were killed after gunfire erupted. The Israeli military reported that six of its soldiers were wounded.
Syrian security sources have described the Hamadas as former affiliates of the Fourth Division, which was commanded by Maher Assad, the younger brother of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Israeli raids and detentions expand in southern Syria
The August 22 strike followed two reported village raids in three days. Shortly after midnight on August 19, about 100 Israeli soldiers entered Jubata al-Khashab in Quneitra province and searched the homes of three brothers, according to residents interviewed by The Media Line.
The force left roughly two hours later with two of the men's sons. Qutaiba Suliman, 26, was released that morning, while Moath Suliman, approximately 32, remains in custody.
Hassan Ahmed, 42, a farmer in the village, said soldiers arrived in about a dozen vehicles, ransacked the homes and beat one of the detainees. He said Israeli forces had confiscated about 150 mobile phones from residents without returning them. The Israeli military did not respond to questions about the account.
“I cannot access my land because the Israeli army had previously bulldozed it completely,” Ahmed said.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the detainees were taken to an Israeli position outside the village. The Israeli military did not respond to questions from The Media Line about the raid, the detainees, or construction in the area.
Syrian state broadcaster Alikhbaria reported that an Israeli shell and flares started a fire in fields south of Jubata al-Khashab on August 20. The fire reportedly burned between the ceasefire line and Sofa 53, the local name for a military road Israel has been building through Quneitra since 2022 alongside a berm and trench.
Israel-Syria security talks unfold alongside military operations
The military operations are unfolding alongside renewed efforts to revive stalled diplomacy. The governments of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa have been engaged in US-mediated talks intended to establish new security arrangements, but neither side has announced an agreement.
Axios reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani and Mossad Director Roman Gofman met on August 23 following Israel's August 18 attack on the Abu al-Duhur airbase, which, according to Syrian state media, damaged the runway and storage facilities. Axios cited three sources familiar with the meeting, two of whom said it took place in Jordan.
Syria later confirmed that a delegation led by Shaibani, including the heads of General Intelligence and Military Intelligence, had met a high-level Israeli delegation in Jordan under US mediation.
SANA said the talks addressed ways to halt Israeli attacks, arrests and targeted operations and revive negotiations over a security agreement. The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment, and Israel has not officially confirmed Gofman's participation.
Al-Shaibani told Reuters on August 23 that negotiations, which stalled during the recent war with Iran, could resume soon under US pressure. He said the sides had previously agreed on central elements of a possible arrangement, including demilitarized zones with a United Nations presence, but accused Israel of lacking the political will to carry it out.
Damascus is seeking an Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory and an end to Israeli attacks as confidence-building measures. Israel says any agreement must prevent hostile armed groups and foreign forces from establishing positions near its border.
The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said Syria had been close to violating a security understanding by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at the base. Netanyahu said Israel had warned both Damascus and Ankara against such a deployment.
Al-Shaibani acknowledged that Turkish officers had visited the base as part of military training and cooperation, but denied that Damascus planned to establish a permanent Turkish base or station Turkish troops there. Turkey's Defense Ministry separately denied that a Turkish military delegation had visited the site before or during the Israeli attack.
Alma Research and Education Center founder Lt.-Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi disputed those denials, telling THE MEDIA LINE that Turkey had planned to deploy air-defense systems at Abu al-Duhur and citing an account of a Turkish-speaking soldier as evidence that Turkish troops had been present in the area. She did not say where that account came from, and Israel has not published evidence for either claim.
“Such a Turkish military presence and the deployment of air-defense systems there would clearly have implications for Israel's security,” Zehavi said.
Al-Shaibani said Damascus had told Israel in advance that Abu al-Duhur would not become a Turkish base, and that Israel struck it anyway.
US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack called the strike an “unnecessary escalation.”
Washington is working to create a deconfliction and information-sharing mechanism among Israel, Syria and Turkey to reduce the danger of an accidental confrontation.
Ahmad Al-Kinani, a political and security analyst in Damascus, said the raids demonstrated that Israel was exercising direct control in the south rather than relying on the proposed US-backed mechanism.
“Israel is now exercising direct security control over the southern region, carrying out direct assassinations and field executions without any coordination or reference to the joint contact point,” he said.
“Israel is operating according to a security agenda tailored specifically to the south, targeting anyone suspected of being prepared to execute military activities against it,” Al-Kinani added.
His description of “field executions” could not be independently substantiated. The Israeli military says its operations in southern Syria are intended to stop immediate threats, locate weapons and prevent armed groups from establishing themselves in the region.
In an August 24, 2025, statement, the military said its forces had arrested suspects, found weapons and acted “to thwart attempts of terrorists to establish themselves in the region, in order to ensure the safety of Israeli civilians.”
Abdullah Hamad, a Syrian security analyst, said the incursions could give Israel leverage in negotiations while complicating Damascus' attempt to strengthen relations with Arab governments and major powers.
Netanyahu has said any agreement would require the demilitarization of Syrian territory from Damascus south to the existing buffer area, including the approaches to Mount Hermon. Such a zone could extend about 30 miles and reach close to the Syrian capital, substantially farther east than the separation area established in 1974.
Israel says its forces must remain in southern Syria to prevent armed groups from approaching its border and describes their presence as a forward defense for Israeli communities.
Netanyahu ordered Israeli troops into the buffer zone on December 8, 2024, saying the 1974 disengagement agreement had collapsed after Syrian forces abandoned their positions during the fall of Assad's government.
That agreement established a demilitarized area of separation between Israeli and Syrian forces, monitored by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), along with adjoining areas where military deployments are restricted. Israel has established positions inside and beyond that area since Assad's fall.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and applied Israeli law there in 1981, a step widely treated internationally as annexation. Most countries do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the territory, although the US did so in 2019.
Israeli operations reshape daily life in Quneitra
Israeli engineering work, residents say, is changing how they move through the region.
Crews reopened an old track north of Wadi al-Raqad on July 22 and extended it toward al-Qulla, a former observation post opposite Ma'ariya, according to residents. The track was resurfaced on August 3 and now reaches the watercourse.
Residents believe the military plans to connect it with roads on the other side, but Israeli authorities have not announced their intentions for the site.
Villagers also said bulldozers destroyed another road on August 8, severing al-Samdaniyah al-Gharbiyah's route to Khan Arnabeh.
A Syrian liaison who works with UNDOF and whose name is being withheld for safety reasons told The Media Line that peacekeepers had documented the construction and passed their observations through mission headquarters to the UN in New York.
The liaison also said UNDOF had recorded detentions in Abidin and Jubata al-Khashab and sought the detainees' release. Israeli authorities largely rejected a request to put detainees in contact with their families, he said.
The liaison spoke in a personal capacity. UNDOF did not respond to The Media Line's request for official confirmation.
The contest over roads has become a contest over movement. Residents in the Yarmouk Basin blocked routes with stones after Israeli vehicles entered Abidin in late June.
SANA reported that Israeli artillery and helicopters fired toward the area after the vehicles withdrew.
Families fled temporarily and returned within days, according to Muwaffaq Mahmoud, who heads the Abidin and Ma'ariya municipality. Anadolu Agency later reported that the Israeli military dropped leaflets telling residents to stop blocking the roads.
Ismail al-Hassan, a 60-year-old farmer in Abidin, said UNDOF representatives met village elders and the mukhtar around August 1. He said the representatives asked residents to remove the stones and promised to help reduce friction with Israeli troops.
The number of incursions initially declined, al-Hassan said. At dawn on August 17, approximately 100 Israeli soldiers in 12 vehicles entered Abidin and detained four men, according to his account. He said troops also uprooted olive trees.
Two stonecutters were later released. Kamal Youssef al-Qasim, 41, a member of the Syrian Defense Ministry's 40th Division, and motorcycle mechanic Ruslan Adel al-Hassan, 40, remained in custody.
Al-Hassan said al-Qasim was detained at home and denied that armed men were operating in the village. The 1974 agreement prohibits Syrian military forces inside the area of separation.
Sijil, a Syrian organization that documents Israeli activity and shares information with government bodies, counted 65 incursions into Quneitra during July and another 52 in the first 18 days of August. Manager Hamza Ghadban told The Media Line that the organization had documented 147 detentions since January 1, with 49 people still held.
The Media Line could not independently confirm those figures.
SANA reported that Israeli forces detained another Syrian near al-Rafid on August 23. The Israeli military did not immediately issue a public response to that account, which The Media Line could not independently verify.
Restrictions on movement have also affected medical treatment and farming. Quneitra Health Director Omar al-Ahmad dispatched mobile clinics to al-Hamidiyah and al-Samdaniyah al-Gharbiyah in May, saying Israeli restrictions had made the villages difficult to reach. UNDOF announced a mechanism with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in July to facilitate mobile medical services.
Israeli forces operate a prefabricated medical point at Hader, a Druze village near Mount Hermon. Ahmed said it primarily serves Hader residents, while people from neighboring Sunni villages tend to avoid it because of Israeli patrols and strained relations with the Druze community.
Friend Ships, a Christian relief organization based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, operates another clinic behind the mosque in al-Hamidiyah. Its website says a doctor and three nurses treat 25 to 30 patients daily and provide medicine without charge. The group also operates a clothing tent and children's playground with support from Israeli organizations.
Residents said foreign staff reach the clinic through the Israeli barrier. Hassan Ahmed, the Jubata al-Khashab farmer, said he received treatment and free medicine there last year.
For farmers working near Israeli positions, access increasingly depends on temporary UN identification cards intended to prevent confrontations with patrols.
Khaled Abdul Rahman al-Hassan, who has farmed outside al-Rafid for 15 years, said Israeli troops had previously interrogated and beaten him and fired nearby during planting and harvesting seasons. This spring, he received a card bearing UNDOF's name through the village mukhtar.
When an Israeli patrol later stopped him, a soldier requested proof of ownership, checked the card against military records and returned it, al-Hassan said.
“They simply told me not to stay out past sunset, and the patrol left right away,” he said.
The card permits him to work between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. through the end of the harvest. The Syrian liaison said approximately 20 to 25 farmers hold similar documents and are permitted to work only on their own land.
Israeli security researchers argue that the raids are intended to prevent Hezbollah, Iran-linked networks and Sunni armed groups from establishing infrastructure near the border. The Alma Center has published research alleging that Hezbollah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recruited among Shiite families in Quneitra.
Israeli forces killed two men near Hader in June, whom Alma identified as Shiites probably belonging to Hezbollah and planning an attack.
Zehavi said that Israeli forces operating in the area of separation carry out arrests and weapons seizures against Sunni and Shiite groups to prevent them from developing infrastructure that could later be used against Israel.
She said Damascus does not currently regard southern Syria, or dismantling the armed organizations operating there, as a first priority in extending and enforcing its sovereignty across the country.
She also said Iran continues trying to preserve and rebuild its presence in Syria, although the al-Sharaa government has made that more difficult, and cited a July 16 interception at the Syrian-Iraqi border as an example.
That seizure was made by Syrian forces: the Interior Ministry said authorities found long-range missiles, guided anti-tank missiles and drones concealed in an oil tanker traveling from Iraq and concluded that the shipment was intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah denied that account and said it no longer operated in Syria.
The Israeli military has previously announced several arrests and weapons seizures in southern Syria, including the detention of an alleged Iran-operated cell in July 2025 and operations involving suspected weapons traffickers the following month.
It did not tell The Media Line what, if anything, its forces had found during the latest raids described by residents.
Syrian authorities announced an operation against a Quneitra cell allegedly linked to Hezbollah in April and another against an Islamic State cell in Khan Arnabeh in August. Six of the nine suspects arrested in the latter operation were released days later.
“It is choosing between a bad option and a bad option,” Zehavi said. “The alternative is not to be there and taking the chance that terrorist attacks will happen and will be executed against our communities on the Israeli side of the border.”
Zehavi said Israel could eventually withdraw, but only if Damascus demonstrated that it was genuinely sovereign and capable of exercising effective control throughout Syrian territory, a standard she said “cannot be established in only a year or two.”
The second condition, she said, would be confidence that the government in Damascus was not hostile toward Israel, but “at present, I see indications pointing in the opposite direction.”
Nir Boms, chair of the Syria Research Forum at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center, said Israel should make greater use of diplomacy.
“I would rather see an attempt to create a security mechanism with the Syrians, and some more de-escalation, because all of this kinetics in the north and in the south further alienates elements in Syria that then go directly against us,” Boms said.
For villagers, the struggle over borders and security is encountered on roads and farmland.
“I have never seen gunmen in al-Rafid,” said al-Hassan, the farmer carrying one of the temporary UN cards, “other than Israeli army patrols entering the town.”
Wirtschafter reported from Istanbul.