A United Nations committee investigating Syria said on Tuesday that it was deeply concerned about Israeli military activities inside Syrian territory, warning that some of these actions, including the detention of civilians, may amount to war crimes.
While presenting the developments before the UN Human Rights Council, Commissioner Fionnuala Ní Olin said that Israeli military operations in southern Syria have become “continuous and increasingly entrenched,” with frequent ground incursions, patrols, raids and inspections that harm civilians, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Israeli mission in Geneva accused the committee of holding a “session to criticize Israel,” saying that Israel had no ambitions in Syrian territory.
She added in a statement: “Israel maintains the existence of a temporary buffer zone equivalent to 0.1 percent of the area of Syria, to protect its citizens from confirmed security threats.”
Syria is seeking reconstruction nearly two years after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli forces entered a buffer zone under United Nations monitoring after the collapse of the Assad government in December 2024, a step Israel described as temporary and necessary to secure its borders during the political transitional period.
Since then, Israel has launched hundreds of raids on Syrian military infrastructure and seized new sites inside Syrian territory. The Syrian government and the United Nations have said this deployment violates Syrian sovereignty and the 1974 disengagement agreement that followed the 1973 war.
Israel says its measures are necessary to protect its security.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said that it documented Israel's establishment of temporary checkpoints and fixed military infrastructure on Syrian territory, especially in the southern governorates of Quneitra and Daraa.
“The committee is deeply concerned about the continued Israeli violations,” Ní Olin told the council, adding that residents expressed their “surprise” at the Israeli measures at a time when the country is witnessing a reconstruction process.
She added that as of June, the committee had identified 49 Syrians, including two children, who were detained by the Israeli army on Syrian territory and were believed to have been transferred across the border.
“Such actions may amount to war crimes,” Ní Aolín said.
In a statement issued on the sidelines of the session, the committee said that some of them are being held in solitary confinement, which raises concerns about the possibility of them being subjected to torture or ill-treatment. It noted that Israeli military activities have caused the displacement of residents, describing the Israeli presence as “military occupation.”
The committee also expressed its agreement with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity are unacceptable and must stop.
The representative of Syria welcomed the results of the committee's work, stressing Damascus's commitment to cooperate with United Nations human rights mechanisms, while at the same time seeking to hold accountable those responsible for violations committed during the era of the previous government.
The Syrian delegate also condemned the Israeli military operations, accusing Israel of violating international law and the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.
On Tuesday, the United States expanded the scope of its sanctions on the Iranian aviation sector to include “all remaining Iranian airlines” that were not subject to US measures, in conjunction with targeting 36 entities that the Treasury Department said support the sector and help Tehran transport weapons, personnel, and illicit shipments.
The US Treasury Department said that the new measures come as part of increasing economic pressure on Iran, and include suspending exemptions and licenses that allowed activities related to Iranian civil aviation, including flying over Iranian airspace, aircraft safety services, refueling, and making emergency repairs.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the suspension, indefinitely, of exceptions contained in Iranian transactions and sanctions regulations, in addition to a license that allowed, under specific conditions, the re-export of some American-origin civilian aircraft to Iran during their temporary stay there.
The suspension included an exception allowing payments related to aircraft flying over Iranian airspace, another related to aircraft safety, and a third allowing refueling and emergency repairs.
The suspension also included the license that allowed the re-export of some civil aircraft to Iran in cases of temporary residence and related transactions.
OFAC simultaneously issued a new general license that allows only transactions necessary to terminate activities that were licensed under these exceptions and licenses until September 23, according to specific conditions.
Thus, transactions that were permitted under those licenses and exceptions are no longer authorized after the expiration of the liquidation period, unless they are covered by another existing general license.
The Treasury Department announced sanctions on 36 targets that it said provided support to the Iranian aviation sector. She added that the measures target networks that help the sector obtain goods, services and technologies or facilitate its transactions.
The ministry said that the Iranian aviation sector is used by the authorities to “transport weapons, individuals, and illicit shipments,” while the new measures expanded the scope of the sanctions to include all Iranian airline companies that were still outside the American lists.
Treasury also issued an alert to financial institutions, calling on them to monitor procurement networks that support Iran's aviation sector and report on activities and transactions associated with them.
The move follows actions taken by OFAC on August 24, when it indefinitely suspended five licenses and other exceptions that allowed a range of transactions with Iran.
These measures included educational activities conducted by Americans in third countries, some non-commercial personal transfers to and from Iran, services related to conferences, some sports activities and exchanges, in addition to academic programs and educational services.
The office had then granted a period to finalize previous transactions until September 8. With the suspension of aviation licenses on Tuesday, a new period was granted to liquidate the activities included in this round, until September 23.
The new procedures close some of the exceptions that allowed the provision of basic operational services to Iranian civil aviation, including services related to safety, fuel, maintenance, and flight, in parallel with expanding the sanctions to include the rest of Iranian airlines and their associated support networks.
The measures come about two weeks after Washington launched the “Economic Pariah” campaign against Tehran, while the US Treasury Department announced that it would impose a new package of sanctions on Iran weekly as part of its efforts to tighten economic pressure.
Tehran is preparing to place directional signs at locations that will be used as public shelters, including a number of metro stations, after criticism raised by the lack of clear shelters and means of access to them during the last two rounds of war.
The head of the Tehran City Council, Mehdi Shamran, said that the authorities will install signs at sites designated as shelters, so that residents know in advance where to go in emergency situations, instead of searching for them after the bombing begins or a crisis occurs, according to government media reports.
Shamran added that work is underway to prepare metro stations for use as shelters, but he acknowledged that the preparations are not yet complete. He explained that the authorities are relying at the current stage on the available facilities, and have begun placing signs at the chosen locations.
Previous rounds of bombing prompted Iranian officials to call on residents of the capital to take shelter in metro stations. On the other hand, citizens criticized the absence of a clear network of shelters and signs specifying their locations or ways to reach them.
Tehran includes about 160 metro stations, and some of the stations are located at a depth of more than 40 meters below the surface of the street, but the expansion of the city makes quickly reaching them difficult for some residents.
This week, the city council approved a plan requiring the Tehran municipality to establish and operate shelters and safe spaces, and to introduce civil defense requirements into urban buildings and projects.
The ILNA labor agency quoted the Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning Affairs, Nasrollah Abadian, as saying that the authorities are preparing instructions to build seven public shelters, six of which are at the neighborhood level and one at the city level, with the plan to expand later to create a shelter in every district of Tehran.
Abadian said that the projects will enter the implementation phase after completing the instructions and obtaining the required approvals.
The program also includes introducing “safe rooms” in residential buildings. Abadian said that the implementation of the requirements will begin after the approval of the executive controls by the Housing Research Center, the Ministry of Roads and Housing, and the Engineering System Organization, provided that the municipality monitors compliance with them when issuing building permits and completion certificates.
Shamran explained that the “safe room” must be designed so that it remains intact if the building collapses, while the head of the Amran Committee in the City Council, Sayed Muhammad Akamiri, said that the safe spaces aim to protect against fragments in cases of indirect strikes, and must meet requirements, including ventilation.
The authorities also approved a “strategic planning document for Tehran’s subsurface spaces,” which divides uses into levels that include services, transportation, infrastructure, and crisis management, and allocates the deeper layers for purposes including civil defense and the construction of shelters.
The bond obligated the municipality to prepare an executive program within six months of being notified, which includes prioritizing areas suitable for underground development. The municipality, according to its assistant for urban planning, has allocated about 30 projects to start development projects under the roof of the capital.
Shamran refused to publish the full details of the shelters in a public database, saying that sensitive information should remain with the responsible authorities, and not be placed in a system that can be accessed from inside or outside Iran, according to ISNA.
He called for ensuring the confidentiality of data with contractors and implementing agencies, while the authorities will use signs to inform residents of the locations that can be resorted to in the event of an emergency.
Shamran ruled out the construction of shelters under public parks, saying that excavation work might damage tree roots, and demanded prohibiting the construction of shelters and parking lots under parks.
