On Monday, June 15, the countryside of Quneitra and Daraa witnessed a new escalation on the ground by the Israeli occupation forces, represented by the erection of a temporary checkpoint east of the village of Saida Golan, in conjunction with the incursion of a military force on the outskirts of Wadi al-Raqqad in the western countryside of Daraa governorate, in a new breach of the contact lines in southern Syria.
According to local sources, an Israeli patrol of 5 armored military vehicles penetrated the vicinity of Sidon Golan, where it set up a temporary checkpoint and began searching passers-by and vehicles and verifying identities, before withdrawing towards the border strip.
This move comes in the context of the occupation's intensification of monitoring and field pressure operations in the area, amid efforts to impose a new security reality on the ground, and the data indicate that Israeli movements are concentrated in the areas adjacent to the villages of the Yarmouk Basin, which have witnessed similar incursions during the past months.
Israeli patrol opens fire on farmers in Wadi al-Raqqad
In an escalating context, the western countryside of Daraa recorded a new incursion by an Israeli military force consisting of several vehicles, including two tanks, which reached the outskirts of Wadi al-Raqqad, where they fired towards the surrounding agricultural lands, before withdrawing without registering any human casualties, according to the state-run SANA news agency.
This development comes after a similar movement just two days ago in the town of Kodna in the southern countryside of Quneitra, when an Israeli force entered the town and raided a number of civilian homes and searched them without carrying out arrests, in an indication of the expansion of Israeli field activity along the border strip.
These successive moves indicate a clear attempt to impose a new security reality in the area, by intensifying incursions, expanding surveillance, and increasing pressure on villages along the contact lines in the countryside of Quneitra and Daraa.
UNDOF's Position on Israeli Incursions
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) merely monitors and documents Israeli violations, without any direct military intervention, in compliance with the limits of its legal mandate, which limits its role to monitoring and reporting only. This approach reflects the nature of its mission, which operates under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, which brings its role closer to mediation and supervision than to the enforcement of the obligation to force.
UNDOF operates under Security Council Resolution 350 of 1974, a protocol mandate that does not grant peacekeepers coercive powers or the ability to confront Israeli military vehicles infiltrating within the zone of separation. Its role is therefore limited to monitoring compliance with the Alpha Line and recording any violations.
ENDOF sends protest messages to the Israeli side
UNDOF patrols continuously document excavations, bulldozing and bermage erections carried out by Israeli forces under Project Suva 53, including incursions into territory belonging to towns such as Kodna and Rafid. These incidents are reported in periodic reports by the UN Secretary-General to the Security Council, where they are usually classified as "violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement".
The commander of the UNDOF forces also sends official letters of protest to the Israeli side through the military liaison channels, demanding a halt to engineering work and the withdrawal of troops behind the separation line, but these messages often go unanswered.
Peacekeepers are facing increasing challenges in carrying out their patrols, as a result of the new minefields and Israeli warning bombardments, which in some cases have led them to evacuate and reposition advanced observation posts to avoid direct contact.
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