Israeli engineering activities in al-Quneitra countryside raise fears of encroachment on Syrian land

Israeli enemy forces continued their engineering and fortification work along the border strip with the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, extending a new barbed wire fence on the western side of the town of Al-Rafid in the southern countryside of al-Quneitra Governorate, southern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on its website on Tuesday that the Israeli enemy’s activities included installing iron supports and raising earthen berms at points close to the ceasefire line, in a move aimed at tightening control and expanding the buffer zone separating Syrian villages from the occupied side.

According to the Observatory, towns in al-Quneitra countryside adjacent to the border are witnessing intensive and continuous Israeli military movements, ranging from bulldozing agricultural lands to constructing new security and military roads.

These measures are raising serious concerns among Syrian residents and farmers about the gradual encroachment on border areas and the imposition of a new reality on the ground that restricts their movement and prevents them from accessing their lands.

In the same context, human rights organizations, including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, continued to document these violations and incursions that affect the integrity of Syrian territory and the rights of its inhabitants, reiterating their demands to the international community and UN bodies for urgent intervention to stop the ongoing Israeli violations and ensure the protection of civilians and their agricultural properties from repeated encroachment and violations.