How Israel's expanding occupation is deepening Syria's dilemma

Damascus - The Israeli military shot dead a developmentally disabled Syrian man last Thursday, triggering a wave of protests across the country against Israel’s continued occupation of parts of Daraa, Quneitra, and the Golan Heights.

The families of individuals detained and illegally transferred to Israel gathered outside the UN headquarters in Damascus on Friday to protest the killing of Muath Al-Baaer. Hundreds also came out to protest in Idlib, Homs, Hasakah, and Quneitra.

Anger is growing in Syria as Israel deepens its occupation in the south. Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since it captured it from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, unilaterally annexing the territory in 1981.

However, following the fall of Assad’s regime in 2024, Israel extended its occupation zone, deploying forces into the neighbouring Quneitra and Daraa regions. It is here that many young men have been disappearing following the Israeli military’s many night raids.

Yet, these disappearances did not begin with the fall of the regime.

In 2024, eight months before now-President Ahmed Al-Sharaa stormed into Damascus, Saddam Hassan Ahmed, 16, was arrested by Israeli forces in Quneitra. He still languishes in an Israeli prison, alongside 38 other Syrian men.

On Friday, his father, Abu Saddam, gathered with other families of the kidnapped in the shade of an apartment complex directly facing the UN headquarters. They were waiting for the protest to start, as their permit was only valid from 2pm.

Abu Saddam is the informal spokesman for the families of the kidnapped, but he insists that the decision to protest was collective.

“We came here to stand together in support of one another, as well as our sons, to stand alongside them until they are released,” he told The New Arab.

“We call on UN forces to pressure the occupying state,” he declared. “We want them to use their influence to secure the release of those detained in Israeli prisons.”

At the permitted time, a small crowd of several dozen gathered and waved the Syrian flag, chanting revolutionary slogans of unity and solidarity.

Overlooking the protest, people came out on their balconies in the upmarket apartment blocks to observe. One woman, holding a placard with her son's face on it, pointed up to them. “Why haven’t they come down to join us?” she shouted. “This is their country too.”

Whilst the turnout was relatively modest in Damascus, large crowds gathered in several other cities to protest the continued Israeli occupation.

“Protests were recorded in eight different governorates of Syria, indicating that the Israeli activities have become a national issue,” Muaz Al-Abdullah, a Middle East Research Manager at ACLED, a conflict tracking organisation, told The New Arab.

“[This is] one of the few causes that unites Syrians across different regions,” he added. “The killing of Muath Al-Baeer was the spark, not the cause.”

An entrenched occupation

Israel's occupation of southern Syria happens in the shadows; on the ground it is uncommon to even catch a glimpse of Israeli soldiers. Yet this shadow of fear looms large over the families of Quneitra.

The Israeli military has established a number of outposts on many of the region's strategic hilltops, from which they terrorise local residents. “Things are becoming more difficult,” says Abu Saddam.

“Their rhetoric has become more heated, and the attacks are increasing, especially as the elections approach.”

According to Al-Abdullah, their presence “is increasingly affecting how civilians use their land and move between villages”.

Under the rubric of creating a security zone, the Israeli military is damaging agricultural lands, confiscating livestock, and destroying woodland and homes near its bases. It has also continued developing Sufa 53 - a fortified military road and network of fortified positions - on the border between Quneitra and the occupied Golan Heights.

Analysts agree that, whilst the occupation of southern Syria is shaped by its own specificities, there are clear resemblances justified on a doctrine of security used to explain the ongoing occupations in southern Lebanon and the West Bank.

Israel also frequently establishes flying checkpoints and launches night raids to illegally detain the area’s young men - many of whom are taken into Israel and have yet to return.

For Mohanad Al-Rish, a Research Manager at COAR Global, a political consultancy firm, this practice raises “serious concerns” as a violation of the Geneva Convention, in which “the forcible transfer of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power is prohibited”.

The Convention requires that those accused of offences be detained within the occupied territory.

Beyond the legal implications, he recognises the “significant consequences” for civilians living in the region, who are faced with a daily sense of insecurity and declining confidence in the Syrian government’s ability to protect them.

The government's position

“I don’t believe the Syrian government has many effective options,” says Al-Rish. Syria’s fragile security environment and weak state capacity mean that any “direct confrontation would carry considerable risk,” he argues.

Israel has made clear its willingness to strike at the heart of the government. During the massacres in Suweida targeting Syria’s Druze minority in 2025, Israel bombed the Syrian Ministry of Defence building and the grounds of the Presidential Palace.

In August, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, standing atop occupied Mount Hermon, sent a “message” to Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa stating, “When you wake up in your palace in Damascus, look up at Mt Hermon, and you will see the Israeli military.”

Due to this, Damascus continues to communicate that it does not seek military escalation and is committed to the diplomatic track, which appears to have stalled. The last known meeting in August between the head of Mossad, Roman Gofman, and Syrian Foreign Minister, Assad Al-Shaibani, seemed to offer little tangible progress.

According to Al-Abdullah, ACLED recorded 24 Israeli incursions the week of the talks, compared to 15 the week before, signalling that Tel Aviv didn’t seek to reduce tensions following the meeting.

With Syria limited to continuing to apply diplomatic pressure through international mediators, Al-Rish believes that the “political environment surrounding these negotiations is changing, [meaning] maintaining the same approach becomes increasingly difficult, particularly in the face of growing domestic frustration.”

He acknowledges that given Syria’s weak security infrastructure, the accumulation of grievance could “become increasingly difficult to contain.”

Growing anger

Although Abu Saddam and the families of the missing made clear that their anger is not directed at the government nor the UN, this recent wave of protests reflects growing frustration about the current settlement in southern Syria.

Although Damascus is clear in its intention to avoid conflict with Israel, one danger is that grievances “could be exploited by third parties, particularly Iran-backed networks,” argues Al-Rish. If people feel disillusioned with the government, they may seek retribution elsewhere.

It would seem that armed groups are active in southern Syria. The Syrian authorities have foiled several plots, most recently on 29 September, when they arrested three men in Deraa province alleging that they were establishing rocket platforms intended to “destabilise the region.”

There is a danger that Damascus may fail to foil a plot, and thus open the door to fierce Israeli retaliation and further potential escalation.

According to Al-Abdullah, “[this] has already happened.” ACLED has recorded four armed clashes between armed groups in Syria and the Israeli military since the fall of the regime. “Each time, the Israeli response was severe,” he adds.

For now, there seems little that Damascus can do other than harden its condemnation of Israeli violations, but for the families of the missing this offers little salvation. All they want is for their sons to come home.

Cian Ward is a journalist based in Damascus, covering conflict, migration, and humanitarian issues

Follow him on X: @CP__Ward

Edited by Charlie Hoyle