News- Middle East: Israeli forces have escalated their offensives by launching fresh raids and arresting a number of activists in southern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitor, reported that Israeli troops stormed Abdeen town in the Yarmouk Basin in southern Syria on Thursday. 

Six military vehicles coming from Israeli bases in the occupied Golan Heights entered the town, located in the western countryside of Deraa.

This came after Israeli troops raided several military posts in the Mount Hermon area in southwest Syria the day before.

On August 18, Israeli forces infiltrated areas in the Quneitra countryside from Tel al-Ahmar al-Gharby towards Kodna and Ain Ziwan villages. The troops searched several houses, harassed and terrorized the local population in the area.

Israeli forces also entered the abandoned Qaws al-Nabaa area in Quneitra and carried out a series of combing raids.

Israeli troops regularly carry out raids across various parts of Syria since Western-backed Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, once affiliated with al-Qaeda and Daesh, was installed as president in Damascus. 

Israel has occupied large additional swathes of territory in southwest Syria following the collapse of the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December.

Israel also carried out hundreds of air strikes to destroy the heavy weapons and military capabilities of Damascus under the Western-backed, controversial rule of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group over the Arab nation. 

The latest incursions into Syrian territory come amid meetings in Paris this week between the HTS foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer.

According to Israel's Haaretz newspaper, the meetings focused on countering the growing power of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other resistance groups across the region.

The two sides also discussed establishing a humanitarian crossing between Syria and Israeli-occupied territory to allow aid to reach the Druze in Suwayda.

Last month, Israel intervened in violent clashes between Syrian HTS-linked forces and Druze armed factions in the southern Suwayda governorate, carrying out heavy strikes on sites in Damascus.

Tel Aviv has used the massacre of hundreds of Druze civilians by the HTS-led forces in July as a pretext to open the corridor.

Observers maintain that the US and Israel are using the HTS-led rule over Syria to spread violence and further their expansionist agenda across the West Asia region. 

SOHR earlier this month reported that it had documented the violent deaths of nearly 10,000 people in Syria since Western-backed HTS militants came into power in December.

The tragic report comes after several recent incidents of violence targeting religious minorities, including massacres of Alawites along the country's coast, clashes with the Druze community in the south and a bombing at an Orthodox church in Damascus.

After the collapse of the al-Assad government last December, Jolani was widely praised by the Western media. An article in the UK's Telegraph described his armed group, the former al-Qaeda affiliated HTS, as “diversity-friendly militants.”

US President Donald Trump recently announced a decision to lift all sanctions against the al-Jolani administration in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel.

Jolani has assured the US-led Western countries that Syria will “normalize relations” with Israel, recognize the regime, and exchange ambassadors by the end of 2026.

The HTS-led regime will reportedly hand over the occupied Golan Heights to Israel as part of a looming normalization deal with the illegal entity.

Source: Press TV