The Associated Press reported that Israeli forces have detained dozens of Syrian citizens in the south of the country, many of whom were subjected to abuses and ill-treatment at Israeli detention facilities. One of them was 20-year-old Ali al-Abdallah. He said he was detained in June 2025 at an Israeli checkpoint near the village of Ain Dar, close to the buffer zone. His hands were tied, and he was transferred between Israeli prisons for five months without ever being formally charged.
Another case is that of 39-year-old Kanan Baker, who was reportedly taken during a nighttime raid on his home in August 2025. His family still does not know where he is or why he is being held. His mother, Huda Baker, said soldiers stormed the house at night and threatened to blow it up if her son did not surrender within five minutes. The man came out to them with his hands tied and his eyes blindfolded. “All we can do is hope in God and pray that He brings us back together with our son,” she said.
Ali al-Abdallah described the conditions of solitary confinement in two prisons: “There was no ventilation, only constant light.” He said his restraints were removed for just a few minutes a day so he could eat, and he was forbidden to sleep, made to sit with his legs tied for seven days at a time without being able to lie down. Another detainee, Wadih Baker, was stopped by an Israeli patrol in the village of Tarandah in June 2025. He was told he would be released in five minutes, but was held for about 15 months. Both confirmed they were held at Ofer Prison near Ramallah and then transferred to Sde Teiman in the Negev Desert—facilities criticized by Israeli and international human rights organizations for abuse and torture.
AP notes that the detentions began before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. In April 2024, soldiers took 16-year-old Saddam Saad al-Din while he was working in an olive grove in the buffer zone. His father, 47-year-old Hassan, says he has no information about where his son is being held, while Israeli forces have barred him from accessing farmland near the village of Jabata al-Khashab. He said bulldozers destroyed 10 to 12 dunams of olive groves and completely demolished a livestock farm. “We are peaceful civilians, farmers and agricultural workers. We have no external affiliations,” he stressed.
According to Syrian officials and UN-backed investigators, Israel is committing human rights violations in Syria. Since December 2024, 49 Syrians have reportedly been detained, and only 16 have been released over the past year. The Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability says former detainees and their relatives have corroborated accounts of abuse and torture. Researcher Salma al-Dawudi says the testimonies point to people being forced into exhausting positions and threatened with weapons. The Israeli military, for its part, says its presence in the buffer zone is necessary to protect its northern border from Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and maintains that its forces “question and detain individuals when there are reasonable suspicions of involvement in terrorist activity.”
Against this backdrop, Israeli forces reportedly drove olive pickers from farmland in the southern part of Quneitra province on Wednesday, searched them and prevented them from continuing their work. Near the village of Tarandah in the northern part of the province, they fired smoke grenades at farmland, causing a fire, a Syrian news channel reported. The Quneitra Information Office documented 125 Israeli raids and 55 instances of checkpoints being set up in the province in October alone. It also recorded the uprooting of about 300 olive trees in the village of Saida al-Hanut and west of Hanut farm.
These events are unfolding amid a long-running conflict over the Golan Heights: Israel occupied the Syrian part of the Golan in 1967 and later annexed it, a move not recognized by most of the international community. In December 2024, after the fall of the Assad regime, Israel took control of the buffer zone established under the 1974 agreement and monitored by the UN. This sparked widespread outrage in Syria. Israeli outposts, raids and incursions have been reported in Quneitra, Daraa and the southwestern countryside of Damascus.
News background
What was the buffer zone established under the 1974 agreement, and which UN forces monitored the ceasefire there until December 2024? — The 1974 Israel-Syria Disengagement Agreement established a demilitarized buffer zone on the Golan Heights between Israeli and Syrian forces. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), established in 1974, monitored the ceasefire, the separation of the two sides and compliance with restrictions on military presence. Until December 2024, UNDOF remained the key mechanism for maintaining the ceasefire in the area.
Why did the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 become the occasion for Israel to take control of the buffer zone, and how did this affect the security of residents in southern Syria? — After the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024, the Syrian army left a number of positions, and Israel said the 1974 agreement was no longer in effect. Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and strategic high ground, including Mount Hermon, and struck military sites, saying their actions were intended to prevent a power vacuum and threats to the border. For residents of southern Syria, this led to increased instability: Israeli raids, arrests, movement restrictions, fears of escalation and damage to local livelihoods.
What role have Quneitra and Daraa provinces historically played in the Israeli-Syrian conflict, and why are protests and Israeli raids concentrated there? — Quneitra borders the occupied Golan Heights and the buffer zone and has historically been a sensitive military corridor. Daraa is Syria’s southern gateway, an area linked to the start of the 2011 uprising, the border with Jordan, smuggling and the presence of armed groups. Protests against Israeli actions and Israeli raids are therefore concentrated there because of the provinces’ proximity to the Golan and the buffer zone, the presence of former military sites and weapons, and their symbolic and strategic importance.
What is known about Ofer and Sde Teiman prisons, and why do human rights organizations criticize conditions there? — Ofer is an Israeli military prison near Ramallah that holds Palestinian prisoners, including administrative detainees and minors. Sde Teiman is an Israeli military camp and detention facility in the Negev that has been used for detainees from Gaza since October 2023. Human rights organizations criticize both facilities for overcrowding, abuse, torture and degrading treatment, inadequate medical care, restrictions on access to lawyers and the lack of proper due-process safeguards. Reports have also emerged of detainee deaths at Sde Teiman and widespread complaints of rights violations.
Full version: Arrests, torture and missing people: Details of Israeli violations in southern Syria