🇸🇾🇮🇱 As Israel eats Syria alive, Sharaa clings to peace promises
 
Israeli forces launched a new incursion into the southwestern Syrian province of Quneitra on Sunday, establishing a checkpoint along a road linking the villages of al-Hiran and al-Rafid.

A day earlier, Israeli troops carried out a similar operation in the village of al-Ajraf in Quneitra’s north, setting up a checkpoint, erecting a surveillance camera and leaving.

Also Saturday, the IDF moved into the Wadi al-Raqad area in Dara’a, creating a checkpoint on a local bridge and searching a residential home. In neighboring Maariya and Al-Aarda, troops set up another checkpoint, searched homes, stopped residents from cultivating their land, distributed leaflets warning them not to obstruct their activities, and damaged an electrical transformer, cutting power to one of the villages.
 
The weekend’s incidents are part of a well-established pattern going back to late 2024. After the collapse of the Assad government, Israel launched a ground invasion:

➡️ capturing up to 350 sq km beyond already occupied areas of the Golan Heights

➡️seizing Mount Hermon – putting Israel within artillery striking range of Damascus

➡️ advancing 12km deep into the Quneitra countryside, establishing forward bases, laying mines and conducting raids

➡️seizing control of the trilateral border area where Israel, Syria and Jordan meet, taking over Al-Wehda Dam, a vital local cross-border water lifeline providing drinking and agricultural irrigation water to local communities

➡️ preemptively wiping out 70-80% of Baathist Syria’s military capabilities, including its air defenses, Navy, Air Force, and long-range ballistic and cruise missiles, plus electricity, water and IT infrastructure

Terrorist-turned president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s responded by making fresh promises last week to ink a security deal with Israel that he says could flower into a comprehensive peace agreement.

He’d better hurry and reach a deal, or Tel Aviv might ramp up its ‘Greater Israel’ appetites and leave nothing of Syria but a Bantustan Damascus governorate. But knowing Sharaa’s allegiances and nature, he’d probably be content with that too, so long as there were still minority communities to terrorize.

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