The Israeli occupation penetrates into the Yarmouk Basin in the countryside of Daraa
Local sources in the western countryside of Daraa said that on the morning of Friday, July 17, the residents of the village of Abdeen cut off the road connecting Maariyya and Abdeen by placing stones and earthen berms, in an attempt to prevent the Israeli occupation army patrols from infiltrating into the area, after an Israeli military force entered the vicinity of the village and fired stun grenades that sparked panic among the residents.
According to the sources, the popular movement came after an incursion carried out by 4 Israeli vehicles in the area of the Yarmouk Basin, coinciding with the flight of drones that dropped sound bombs on the secondary road between the towns of Al-Ardah and Ma'ariyya, which caused widespread tension among the residents, who rushed to close the roads to prevent the progress of patrols.
According to local sources, the Israeli vehicles entered from the Jazeera barracks towards Ma'riya, before continuing their movement towards the outskirts of Abdeen to reach the area of Al-Ardeh, amid the flight of 3 drones over the homes of civilians on the road connecting the two towns. No injuries or arrests were recorded during these movements.
The occupation forces stormed the village of Abdeen
Later, local correspondents reported that the occupation forces removed the stone and earthen berms that the residents had previously placed to close the roads leading to the village, in an attempt to impede the repeated incursions.
According to the testimonies, the movements began with the entry of 3 military vehicles, accompanied by an engineering vehicle (Turks) at 6 a.m., before withdrawing after about 20 minutes, after which 4 vehicles quickly returned to Al-Ardah Road, with gunfire heard in the air without recording direct contact.
Accounts differed about the extent to which Israeli forces reached Abdeen, as the official "Al-Ekhbariya" channel reported that the Israeli army opened roads inside the village using bulldozers, while local sources confirmed that the patrols did not enter Abdeen directly, and their movements were limited to the valley road between Maaria and Al-Ardeh near the village.
These developments come in the context of limited and repeated incursions in the western countryside of Daraa on Friday morning, amid the residents' continuous attempts to erect earthen and stone barriers to prevent Israeli vehicles from advancing inside their villages.
Previous incursions into Abdeen
The Israeli army has previously escalated its movements in the Daraa countryside, by targeting the village of Abdeen and its surroundings with artillery shells and firing heavy machine guns from a helicopter on June 28, amid the flight of Israeli warplanes and helicopters in the airspace of Daraa and Quneitra governorates.
The Syrian state news agency SANA reported at the time that the shelling on the village of Abdeen caused damage to agricultural lands and the vicinity of the village, without recording any human casualties, while the state of fear that accompanied the shelling prompted a number of residents to flee to neighboring towns and villages.
The commander of civil defense operations at the Directorate of Emergency and Disaster Management in southern Syria, Ahmed al-Hajer, said that the Israeli shelling did not result in civilian casualties, but caused a state of panic that prompted a number of families to leave the village.
Civil defense teams worked to transport the families and provide for their needs, in light of the Israeli drones, before calm returned to the village after the Israeli army withdrew from the area.
The Israeli targeting operations were preceded by the incursion of a military patrol consisting of four vehicles into the village located in the area of the Yarmouk Basin in the western countryside of Daraa, adjacent to the occupied Syrian Golan.