The Israeli occupation forces arrested two Syrian youths in the countryside of Quneitra
At dawn on Wednesday, May 20, the Israeli occupation forces infiltrated into various areas of the Quneitra countryside, and carried out search and arrest operations against two young men from the area, in a new aggression on Syrian territory.
According to local sources, a military patrol raided Al-Basali farm and carried out searches inside a number of houses, before arresting a young resident of the area, and at the same time, another force penetrated the farm of um al-Luqs and arrested a second young man after raiding houses in the area.
The sources pointed out that an Israeli patrol consisting of 3 military vehicles penetrated into one of the quarries in the area of the wood crushers, where it conducted inspections inside the site before withdrawing.
At the time of publication of this news, no comment has been issued by the Syrian government or the occupation authorities regarding the arrest of the two young men.
Protest in Damascus against Israel's arrest of dozens of Syrians
On Tuesday, May 19, the families of Syrian detainees in Israeli prisons organized a protest in front of the United Nations building in Damascus, to demand the disclosure of the fate of their children and their immediate and unconditional release, as an extension of previous movements, which included a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates building in late April.
Relatives of detainees and forcibly disappeared people who said their documented number is 47 (and another estimates 48), from the governorates of Quneitra, Daraa and the western Damascus countryside, according to a statement sent by the protesters to the United Nations.
The protesters called on the UN Secretary-General and the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to take urgent action and pressure the occupation authorities to release the detainees unconditionally, reveal their places of detention and conditions of detention, provide them with medical care and ensure their physical safety.
In their statement to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the families stressed the need to enter the places of detention immediately to check on the detainees, especially those who suffered injuries during the arrests, stressing that they will continue their movements until all the abductees return to their families.
In their statement, the protesters called on the Syrian authorities to include the detainees' file "as a basic and non-negotiable item in any security or political talks held under international auspices."
670 Israeli incursions documented since the collapse of the disengagement agreement
Syrian human rights centers have documented more than 670 Israeli ground incursions into southern Syria since the collapse of the disengagement agreement in December 2024 until May 2026, in a continuous escalation on the ground witnessed in the governorates of Quneitra and Daraa, which includes repeated violations of Syrian sovereignty and the rights of civilians.
Human rights data indicate that more than 620 incursions were recorded until the end of last April, followed by a new wave of military movements during the month of May that included a number of border towns.
According to the human rights center "Sijil", the number of documented violations during the month of April alone reached 254, in one of the highest monthly tolls since the start of the escalation, and the vast majority of these incursions are concentrated in Quneitra governorate by more than 90%, while other violations are recorded in the western countryside of Daraa and areas of the southwestern countryside of Damascus, such as Jabal al-Sheikh and Beit Jinn.