In the weeks following Bashar al-Assad's fall on 8 December 2024, Israeli forces invaded areas of southwestern Syria beyond the Golan Heights, which they had occupied since 1967, seizing areas inside a UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone and beyond.
Since then, families across the southern cities of Quneitra and Daraa and the town of Beit Jinn say Israeli forces have been detaining civilians during raids, incursions and patrols in border areas.
What began as scattered reports has now developed into a documented pattern, with lawyers and rights groups saying at least 43 Syrians remain held in Israeli detention, including at least one child.
Former detainees describe being blindfolded, interrogated and, in some cases, transferred into Israel itself. Others speak of months spent without charge, without access to lawyers, and without their families knowing where they were being held.
The arrests come amid Israel's continued illegal military presence inside southern Syria, which Israeli officials have framed as a "security zone" intended to prevent alleged threats near the Golan.
By March 2025 however, Defence Minister Israel Katz publicly stated that Israeli forces were prepared to remain in Syria for an "unlimited" period, reinforcing concerns that the detentions were unfolding within a deepening and open-ended military presence beyond the occupied Golan Heights.
How many Syrians are being held?
Ahmad al-Moussa, a lawyer who has been documenting the arrests, told The New Arab's affiliate Syria TV that the number of Syrian detainees had previously reached 50, although seven were released in recent weeks.
Four were freed shortly before a fact-finding visit by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to Quneitra last month, while three others were released ahead of the group's sessions in late January.
According to al-Moussa, 43 Syrians remain in detention, including four who were children at the time of their arrest, and one who is currently under 18.
Thirty-nine of those detentions took place after 8 December 2024, the day Israeli forces entered parts of southern Syria beyond the long-standing buffer zone.
Additional testimonies to The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, as well as local monitoring, suggest the number of abductions may be higher.
Activists and local sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed last month that dozens of incidents have been recorded in villages in the Yarmouk Basin and areas near the separation line, with civilians seized during military incursions, from their workplaces, or while moving between towns.
Al-Moussa says he has compiled individual case files and submitted them to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, while also contacting the Human Rights Council, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
With the assistance of Israel-based rights groups, including HaMoked, lawyers were appointed to represent some detainees. Al-Moussa says that legal pressure contributed to the release of seven individuals so far, though dozens remain in custody.
He adds that sustained advocacy had led to a fact-finding visit to Quneitra in December, where officials met families of detainees, and the issue was discussed during a dedicated session at the UN Human Rights Council. Further clarification on detention locations and legal status is still being sought.
Detainees being transferred to notorious Sde Teiman facility
Testimony from a recently released detainee has intensified concerns that some of the detainees were transferred to facilities in Israel where horrific abuse of Palestinian detainees has taken place.
The man, cited by Syria TV, says he was held for more than two months and reported encountering around 50 Syrian detainees inside Sde Teiman prison near Beersheba in southern Israel, where Palestinian detainees have been subjected to rape, starvation, and torture by Israeli forces.
Other testimonies point to detainees being held in Ofer prison near Ramallah and in Nafha desert prison.
One case that drew attention is that of Shadi Zeina, a 17-year-old from the Damascus countryside town of Kanaker, who disappeared during an Israeli incursion on 29 July 2025.
His mother, Samar Dreiby, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that she had spent two months searching for him before learning through released Palestinian detainees that he was being held in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.
She had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross and HaMoked before confirmation came that her son was in Israeli custody.
According to former detainees who met him, Shadi had not been formally charged and had not been visited by a lawyer.
The transfer of detainees from Syrian territory into Israel would raise serious legal issues. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, protected persons in occupied territory must not be forcibly transferred to the territory of the occupying power.
Such transfers can constitute grave breaches of international humanitarian law and may carry individual criminal responsibility.
Legal experts say that detaining civilians without clear charges, denying information about their whereabouts, or refusing to acknowledge their detention could also amount to arbitrary detention or enforced disappearance under international human rights law, which continues to apply during military occupation.
What are former detainees saying about what happened to them?
One young man from Jbata al-Khashab described to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed being seized by a seven-member Israeli force along with three others.
Blindfolded and taken to what he believes was a military site inside Syria, he said he was questioned about his political views, his family, and whether he had any links to the Lebanese group Hezbollah or Iran.
A map was placed in front of him, and he was asked to identify homes and neighbourhoods before he was released seven hours later. The fate of the three others detained with him remains unknown.
Another Syrian man, who spent seven months in Israeli detention, described his experience as a "nightmare". He said he was first held at the Sde Teiman camp, where he spent around four months without formal charges or a court appearance.
He described harsh detention conditions and sustained physical and psychological abuse, including severe beatings, prolonged stress positions, painful restraints, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and repeated interrogation sessions lasting up to six hours.
He was later transferred to Ofer prison, where questioning continued.
How many cases may qualify as disappeared?
Almoutassim Al-Kilani, founder of the rights group Min Haqqi, says his organisation has documented 41 cases of disappearance since 8 December 2024.
Families have no confirmed information about where many detainees are being held, with some believed to have been transferred to facilities inside Israel, based on testimony from released detainees.
Under international law, enforced disappearance occurs when a person is deprived of liberty by state agents and their fate or whereabouts are concealed or denied.
Al-Kilani says the combination of detention and a lack of information places individuals outside the protection of the law.
He notes that while UN mechanisms can request urgent clarification, they lack direct enforcement power.
He says the International Committee of the Red Cross can visit detainees and help families communicate with them confidentially, while the Committee on Enforced Disappearances can push authorities for answers, but neither has the power to force Israel to release the detainees immediately.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs says it has attempted to organise visits for Syrian detainees and pursue legal interventions, but Israeli prison authorities have so far refused to grant permission.
The commission is preparing to petition Israel's Supreme Court in an effort to obtain access.
For many families in southern Syria, however, the legal process offers little immediate relief. Months after their relatives were seized, they remain without confirmed information, without visits, and without clarity about what charges, if any, have been brought against them.