Israeli forces attempted to establish a military position near the village of Abidin in western Daraa province on Sunday, prompting a confrontation that ended with their withdrawal, according to local officials and residents. Troops entered the area with armoured vehicles and erected tents on a nearby hill, which villagers interpreted as a move to create a permanent post. Residents blocked roads and threw stones at patrols, after which Israeli units fired artillery shells and helicopter-mounted machine guns. The shelling caused no casualties but triggered a limited displacement of families, who returned after the Israeli force burned its tents and pulled back late Sunday. A patrol from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) visited the village on Monday.

The Syrian foreign ministry condemned the incursions “in the strongest terms” as a “flagrant violation” of sovereignty and the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, and called on the UN and the international community to halt the violations. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Turkey issued similar denunciations, describing the operations as breaches of international law and warning that continued attacks would exacerbate regional tensions. Hamas praised the villagers’ resistance. The Israeli military stated it had “eliminated a number of armed men in the security zone” in southern Syria on Saturday, without specifying the location, and has framed its operations as necessary to prevent armed groups from entrenching near the border.

The Abidin incident is the latest in a series of Israeli ground incursions and airstrikes that have intensified since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, when Israel declared the collapse of the 1974 disengagement framework and moved forces into the buffer zone on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Local officials in Daraa and Quneitra report that Israeli patrols now enter villages almost daily, erecting checkpoints, raiding homes, arresting civilians, and bulldozing farmland. Residents and Syrian authorities view the attempted deployment in Abidin as part of a broader effort to establish permanent military positions beyond the ceasefire line, a pattern that, according to local sources, has expanded in recent weeks.

The UN patrol and the return of displaced families have restored a fragile calm, but Israeli overflights continue and no diplomatic mechanism has been activated to enforce the 1974 agreement. Arab governments have urged the international community to compel Israel to halt its attacks, yet no new Security Council action has been announced. The Abidin confrontation, in which villagers forced a temporary withdrawal, is being cited by Syrian officials as evidence of popular rejection of any permanent Israeli military presence, while Israeli military spokesmen maintain that operations will persist to secure the border area.