PNN – Field sources in Quneitra, referring to the expansion of the Zionist regime’s aggression in Syria, announced that Israeli soldiers are systematically attacking Syrians, including members of the media, etc., confiscating their property, beating them, and detaining them.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, While after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria on December 8, 2024, the Zionist regime has launched a large wave of aggression and occupation in the country’s territory, and in the shadow of international complicity and the suspicious silence and passivity of the new Damascus government headed by Abu Muhammad al-Julani (Ahmad al-Sharaa), it has completely destroyed a large part of Syria’s military capabilities. Syrian sources report the increasing spread of aggression by the Zionist military in southern Syria, specifically Quneitra province, against the citizens of the country.
Zionists’ systematic crimes against Syrian citizens
Al Jazeera, which has been aligned with the Golani government in reporting on developments in Syria from the beginning, discussed the expansion of Israeli aggression and occupation in Syrian territory in a new report, stating that after collecting field information, it became clear that the Israeli military’s systematic crimes against Syrian citizens, including attacks on them, beatings of people, forced disappearances, and confiscation of their property, continue amid a worrying international silence.
In this regard, Mohammed Al-Fayyad, a lawyer and human rights activist from Quneitra province, stated in an interview with Al Jazeera: Last January, along with French journalist Sylvain Mercat, I was arrested by the regime’s forces in the village of Al-Hamidiyah, on the outskirts of Quneitra, while we were documenting the increasing Israeli incursions into the area.
He added: An Israeli special force arrested us after handcuffing and blindfolding us, and before being transferred to the governor’s building, which the occupying army has turned into a military headquarters, we were brutally beaten in the head, chest, and legs.
The Syrian lawyer stated: The Israeli forces confiscated all our equipment, including cameras, phones, and computers, erased all their contents, and took our SIM cards. The occupying forces interrogated us for more than 7 hours and accused us of taking photographs of Israeli military sites and collaborating with resistance groups, even though we were wearing journalist uniforms and our media mission was completely clear.
He noted: Yousef Gharibi, a Syrian photographer, managed to escape and reported our arrest to the media, which helped expedite the process of our release.
Arbitrary detention of Syrian children by the Zionist occupiers
In another case of aggression by the Zionist military against Syrian citizens, Hussein Ahmed, a citizen of Quneitra, said: The occupying forces arrested my teenage son in late April while he was on a cattle farm in the city of Jabatha al-Khashab on the outskirts of Quneitra province.
He added: I was able to meet my son through a lawyer affiliated with the International Committee of the Red Cross and learned that he had been transferred to the occupied Palestinian territories and is currently being held in Israel’s Ofer Prison near Ramallah in the West Bank.
The Syrian citizen emphasized: The children who were detained with my son by the occupying forces informed me that my son is being held in Zionist administrative detention without charge or trial, which is a clear violation of international and humanitarian law. My son has a UN ID card that allows him to work on our farm to farm and graze livestock.
Occupiers’ encroachment on Syrian property amid suspicious inaction by Golani government
He said: A month after my son was arrested, the occupying forces returned to our farm and bulldozed about 8,000 square meters of land where we had planted more than 400 fruit trees, including olives, cherries, figs, and grapes. They also bulldozed one of our cowsheds.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Israeli army has, according to field data, made more than 20 arrests in Quneitra, targeting human rights media activists, children, and leaders of popular groups, among others. Although most of them were released after various periods of detention, six Syrian citizens from Quneitra remain in the prisons of the occupying regime without trial or specific charges.
The families of the detainees and domestic Syrian human rights organizations called on international institutions to assume their responsibilities by documenting these crimes committed by the Zionist occupying forces and pressuring this regime to stop its policy of repression and arbitrary arrests against the residents of Quneitra province.
While the Israeli army claims that its presence in Syria is temporary, the realities on the ground show that the regime intends to consolidate its occupation and presence in Syria, and Israel Katz, the Israeli Minister of Defense, publicly stated that Israeli forces have come to stay in Syria indefinitely.
The Syrian activist added: It seems that the Israeli occupation in Syria has been consolidated and this regime has no intention of leaving, and if there is no resistance, the Zionists will never leave Syria. The Zionist occupying regime is today trying to separate the different population groups of Quneitra from each other and create sectarian and tribal differences between them.
Expressing surprise at the silence and passivity of the new Syrian government towards the aggressions and occupations of the Zionist regime, he stated: Has Quneitra really has been removed from the map of Syria without our knowledge? The new Syrian government has the duty to save the people, we will not submit to occupation and we will not remain silent.