KEY POINTS
- Israeli troops conduct latest ground operation in Syria’s Deraa province
- Damascus condemns raids on Homs and Latakia as violation of sovereignty
- More than 6,000 Palestinians flee Gaza City in one day under heavy bombing
- Al-Mawasi camp overcrowded, with reports of famine and unsafe conditions
DAMASCUS/GAZA CITY: Israeli troops carried out a ground operation in Syria’s southeastern Deraa province, state news agency SANA reported on Sunday, marking the latest cross-border incursion as Israel expands its military actions across the country.
The report said Israeli soldiers conducted searches in Saysoun and Jamlah, both near the 1974 disengagement line that separated Israeli and Syrian troops after the Yom Kippur war.
It comes a day after Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said preliminary talks with Israel had begun to restore the 1974 agreement, though he ruled out normalisation of ties.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad in December, including raids on military sites and seizures of the buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights, which breached the disengagement pact.
Last week, Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned Israeli raids on Homs and Latakia as “a blatant violation of sovereignty.”
Analysts told The Washington Post that Israel’s actions reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of a “Greater Israel,” a concept backed by ultranationalist allies claiming parts of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan.
Violence in Suwayda province between Druze and Bedouin factions in July was also followed by Israeli strikes under the stated aim of protecting Druze civilians.
While escalating in Syria, Israel continues its campaign in Gaza. The Palestinian Civil Defence said more than 6,000 people were forced to flee Gaza City on Saturday, alone, as the Israeli military pressed what survivors described as indiscriminate carpet bombing. An estimated 900,000 people remain in the city, but the number is falling rapidly.
Many of the displaced are being pushed towards al-Mawasi, a coastal strip designated by Israel as a “safe zone.” Yet displaced Palestinians and aid workers told Al Jazeera the camp is overcrowded, lacking food, and still under fire.
“It’s called a safe zone, but we know for sure that it’s not safe,” journalist Ahmed al-Najjar said, recounting how his sister was killed in a strike there.
Families described the ordeal as a cycle of displacement without refuge. “Not only are missiles pouring down on our heads, but famine is devouring us too,” one man told Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary from al-Mawasi. Some residents, unable to find shelter, have even begun returning to Gaza City despite the risks.
The dual fronts — intensified incursions in Syria and relentless bombardment of Gaza — underscore a widening Israeli military campaign that regional observers warn could inflame conflict zones stretching from the Golan to the Mediterranean.
