Israel's military continued with its incursions in southwest Syria on Monday, carrying out raids and arresting members of what it claims to be an Iran-backed cell.
The troops entered the villages of Al-Dawaya and Ain al-Zeitoun in the Quneitra countryside in the early hours of Monday.
Citing sources in the region, The New Arab’s sister outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said three males, including a 14-year-old minor, were snatched in the Israeli operation.
One of the men identified as Ahmed al-Karyan was reportedly a prominent opponent of former rule Bashar al-Assad and was locked up in the notorious Sednaya prison for years.
An Israeli patrol warned residents in Al-Dawaya against interfering or sharing information about its recent operation, according to a local resident who spoke to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on condition of anonymity.
According to the resident S.Q., the patrol claimed the individuals arrested on Monday were involved in anti-Israeli army protests earlier this year and may be linked to a local resistance movement.
But in its own statement, the Israeli military said its troops "completed an overnight operation to apprehend a cell that was operated by the Iranian Quds Force in the Tel Kudna area of southern Syria".
The Quds Force is the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who lost dozens of leading members in the recent 12-day Israel-Iran war.
The arrests would be the second such operation Israel has announced in the past week targeting alleged Iran-backed cells.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said its forces had apprehended members of an Iranian-backed cell in southern Syria and seized weapons.
Since the December overthrow of Assad's regime, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes, primarily targeting military sites, and carried out cross-border ground raids in southwest Syria.
It has deployed troops across the demilitarised zone on the Syrian side of the armistice line that used to separate the opposing forces in the Golan Heights, with Israeli troops regularly carrying out raids inside Syrian territory.
Israel has since captured dozens of villages in the Quneitra governorate as well as the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, alleging security purposes as an Islamist government rose to power in Damascus. It has also built bases in areas it has captured.
Israel and Syria have been engaged in direct talks to reportedly reach a security deal and de-escalate tensions, but there is growing speculation that the two could also ink a peace deal.
There are reports that say Syria could even join the controversial Abraham Accords and normalise ties with Israel.
Israel has said it is "interested" in striking normalisation agreements with Syria and neighbouring Lebanon, but insisted the strategic Golan Heights - which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the United Nations - would "remain part of" Israel under any peace accord.