Is Israel imposing a West Bank-style occupation in south Syria?

Israeli troops have carried out several cross-border operations in the south of Syria in recent weeks, invading villages, raiding homes, and detaining civilians. While some detainees were later released, others were taken to undisclosed locations with no information on their fate.

The incursions are the latest in an ongoing pattern of Israeli actions in southern Syria, including ground operations, artillery shelling, the destruction of agricultural land, and the arrest of civilians at checkpoints, particularly in the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa.

These operations are taking place despite an agreement reached on 6 January between Syria and Israel to set up a joint coordination mechanism for sharing intelligence, promoting military de-escalation, and engaging diplomatically under US oversight.

Open-ended Israeli military deployment

Following the fall of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad on 8 December 2024, Israeli forces unilaterally declared the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria invalid and launched incursions into southwestern Syria beyond the Golan Heights, most of which Israel occupied in 1967.

Israel seized areas both inside and outside the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone - separating Syrian and Israeli forces - where it established nine military posts and carried out extensive airstrikes on military infrastructure, even though Damascus has shown no hostility towards Tel Aviv.

Residents across the southern cities of Quneitra, Daraa, and the town of Beit Jinn have reported regular arrests of young men during raids and at checkpoints, with near-daily Israeli military activity in those areas.

“It sends a message to communities in the southwest that the ‘conflict is not over’ in the Golan and that they must submit to the new political and military authority,” the New Lines Institute's Caroline Rose told The New Arab, alluding to Israel’s incremental detentions and enforced disappearances.

In her view, Israel is testing Damascus to see how far it can go and how much leverage it holds in the new Syria, particularly with an administration eager to appease the US and secure a de-confliction accord. “Tel Aviv is trying to push the envelope in Syria to the furthest in a contested, occupied area,” she said.

Damascus has repeatedly condemned breaches of the 1974 agreement and reiterated its demand for the withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces from what it considers its sovereign land. Syria’s stated priority is to reactivate the accord to secure an Israeli withdrawal to the lines in place before 8 December 2024 under a reciprocal security arrangement that guarantees full Syrian sovereignty and bars any external interference.

Local media and human rights organisations say some detainees are released after questioning, while others are held for days or even weeks, with families given little to no information about their whereabouts.

The detentions are documented as part of a broader pattern, according to lawyers and rights groups, who say at least 43 Syrians, one of them a child, are still being held in Israeli custody.

An investigation by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab's Arabic language sister site, found that dozens of Syrians who were arrested in recent months, among them teenagers, are being held in harsh conditions in Israeli prisons alongside Palestinian detainees.

Former prisoners spoke of physical and psychological abuse, prolonged detention without formal charges or judicial review, transfers between multiple facilities such as Sde Teiman and Ofer Prison, and the denial of family contact, visits, and legal access. They also stated that no information was disclosed about their place of detention or treatment, making independent verification of their situation or total numbers very difficult.

In a report published in September 2025, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Syria since December 2024 have committed a range of abuses within the UN-supervised buffer zone, including abducting and arbitrarily detaining Syrian residents and moving them to Israeli territory. International law forbids the transfer of detainees out of the occupied territory into Israel, regardless of any allegations against them.

The rights group documented the detention of seven Syrians in Beit Jinn since December 2024 and one 17-year-old boy in Jubata al-Khashab earlier in April 2024. All eight, described as farmers and shepherds, were unlawfully transferred to Israel, where witnesses and relatives said they were still being held without charge and with no contact allowed.

West Bank-style occupation

“Exceptional military measures are becoming routine practice, with no accountability mechanism and no political cost,” Nanar Hawach, a senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told The New Arab, warning that the absence of a legal framework governing Israel’s presence in the south of Syria allows unchallenged arrests to proceed without scrutiny.

He said weekly ground incursions with armoured patrols, biometric data collection, and night raids are normalising a "West Bank-style military administration" in the country’s south.

“The detentions compound a wider pattern of restrictions on movement, access to land, and economic activity, making daily life for these communities increasingly untenable,” Hawach said.

The ICG expert argued that the detentions expose a “significant gap” between Israel’s control over civilian populations in southern Syria and the legal obligations it accepts, since it denies that its presence constitutes an occupation and therefore does not apply the safeguards required by international humanitarian law.

Responding to a letter from HRW seeking information about the prisoners, the Israeli military said it was operating in southern Syria “to protect” Israeli citizens, but provided no details on detention locations or access to lawyers or family in any of the recorded cases.

The rights watchdog said Israel’s conduct violated the laws of war, calling on governments to suspend military assistance and impose sanctions.

The fate of several Syrians detained by Israel remains unknown amid its continued illegal military presence in south Syria, which Israeli officials describe as a “security zone” intended to prevent perceived threats near the occupied Golan Heights.

Over the past year, Syria and Israel have held talks aimed at reaching a security arrangement that would stop Israeli attacks against Syrians and Syrian land.

The Israeli government has demanded the full demilitarisation of the area south of Damascus, barring Syrian military forces from the region. It has also declared that Israeli forces would remain indefinitely in the territory seized, confirming fears that the detentions of Syrians are occurring within an expanding, open-ended military deployment past the occupied Golan Heights.

Analysts say Israel is also attempting to build relations with Syrian minorities, especially the Druze in Suweida, as part of a broader strategy to maintain influence and keep neighbouring states weak.

Rose says that Israel is trying to strengthen its military presence and expand the buffer zone, using the Golan as a “launchpad”, a move it sees necessary after the 7 October Hamas attack exposed its vulnerability to adversaries. The goal, she continued, is to extend this security corridor southward into Suweida and Daraa, creating a “continuous cross-border security belt” under its control.

The MENA expert added that Tel Aviv has on various occasions framed its deployment in south Syria as protection for the Druze community, using this narrative to justify its presence and potentially deepen its footprint.

Hawach said the detentions are “one tool in a broader post-7 October doctrine of forward defence and strategic depth along all borders”.

In southern Syria, this means maintaining control of the buffer zone, preventing any armed forces from consolidating near the Golan, protecting the Druze for both humanitarian and strategic reasons, and building leverage ahead of negotiations on a security arrangement beyond the 1974 disengagement framework.

Alessandra Bajec is a freelance journalist currently based in Tunis

Follow her on Twitter: @AlessandraBajec

Edited by Charlie Hoyle