Israeli Forces Bulldoze Jabatha Al-Khashab Land in Quneitra, Syria, for Sufa 53 Road

In the northern countryside of Quneitra, Abu Saddam says Israeli forces bulldozed his land in May 2024 and left it behind the trench Israel built along the border as part of what is known as the 'Sufa 53' military road.

“Syrian shepherds and farmers in the de-escalation zone inside Syrian territory are facing increasing on-the-ground restrictions as the Israeli army and settlers use livestock herds as a means to expand influence and control over land, amid accusations of expelling and seizing local livestock”

Al-Jazeera Net

Abu Saddam, a native of the village of Jabatha al-Khashab, told Syria Direct that he planted 10 dunams with olives, cherries, peaches, and grapes and that after the land was bulldozed he rented about 40 dunams and planted forage alfalfa, but Israeli agricultural pesticides sprayed by Israeli planes at the start of this year damaged the cultivated area.

Al-Jazeera Net

Syria Direct also describes how, since the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, villages of Quneitra and western Daraa near the deconfliction line have turned into a daily “pressure” space involving incursions, raids, arrests, land clearance, checkpoints, restrictions preventing farmers and herders from accessing fields and pastures, and shelling, gunfire, and spraying pesticides.

The same report says the Sijal Center documented March as the highest total of violations since the start of the year, at 321 violations, followed by April with 254, with ground intrusions rising from 56 to 76 operations in the provinces of Daraa, Quneitra, and western Rif Damascus.

Alaa Al-Haji, a journalist and researcher at the Sijal Center, said, “We cannot reach our land.”

Syria Direct quotes Malek Abu Ubaida, a journalist from Daraa who covers Israeli violations in southern Syria, saying, “The closer the herders get to Israeli points or border areas, the more they face temporary detention,” and that “Many grazing areas have gone out of service because Israeli forces prevented their owners from reaching them.”

In the de-escalation zone inside Syrian territory, Al-Jazeera Net reports that Syrian shepherds and farmers face increasing on-the-ground restrictions as the Israeli army and settlers use livestock herds as a means to expand influence and control over land.

Anadolu Ajansi

One shepherd told Syria Now’s correspondent that drones attacked his flock in the valley area, after which it was entirely seized and driven into the occupied Golan, and another shepherd said the Israeli army seized more than 100 head of cattle since last January and has not returned them yet.

Al-Jazeera Net also says settlers accompanying the flocks in what is known as the 'Cattle Squadron' shoot directly at Syrian shepherds and farmers to force them to leave and prevent them from returning to their lands.

The Anadolu Ajansı report, marking the 59th anniversary of the Naksa, quotes Wasel Abu Yousef saying the June 1967 war “marked another milestone in the Palestinians' displacement and seizure of their lands after the Nakba.”

Syria Direct says the Israeli practices have worsened the economic plight of residents and placed farmers and herders at the forefront of those harmed, with one journalist based in the Yarmouk Basin in western Daraa saying, “Farmers and herders are the most targeted group.”

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That same Syria Direct account adds that with the harvest season beginning this year, the risk of fires is added to the list of fears for residents near the line of contact due to shelling and flare bombs on agricultural and pastoral fields carried out almost daily, raising fears of wide-scale fires.

Syria Direct also describes how civil defense teams struggle to reach these sensitive areas, requiring coordination with the United Nations forces deployed in the area, which in turn coordinate with the Israeli side.

In parallel, Al-Jazeera Net reports that pasture closures have changed grazing areas in the region, with one resident saying the Israeli army seized the pastures adjacent to Wadi al-Raqad west of Daraa and that these spaces have become a restricted area for settlers' flocks and are now completely forbidden to Syrian shepherds.

The Anadolu Ajansı report frames the broader stakes by quoting Wasel Abu Yousef that the Naksa anniversary comes amid “the ongoing comprehensive aggression faced by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.”