Renewed Israeli incursions into the Syrian countryside of Daraa

An Israeli army force, including 5 military vehicles, penetrated towards the village of Maariya in the western countryside of Daraa, on Friday, and deployed on its outskirts for about half an hour, before withdrawing to its previous positions.

A Syria TV correspondent reported that the Israeli force “departed from the Al-Jazeera barracks towards the village of Maariya, and deployed on its outskirts, before returning to the barracks from which it had started.”

The incursion coincided with an intense flight of Israeli drones over the airspace of the village of Jumla in the western countryside of Daraa, according to the “Ahrar Houran Gathering.”

On Thursday, Israeli forces targeted, with three artillery shells, the outskirts of “Beit Jinn Farm” in the Damascus countryside, without information being received about any losses. Earlier the same day, another force penetrated the village of Ovania in the Quneitra countryside, before withdrawing towards the village of Al-Hurriya.

The Sijil Center documented 395 Israeli violations in Syria during the month of October, the highest monthly toll since the beginning of 2026, which included military incursions, raids, detentions, and artillery shelling, in addition to the killing of two by Israeli forces’ bullets. According to a statistical report issued by the center last week, Israeli violations increased by 41.1 percent compared to September, which witnessed 280 violations, bringing the total number of documented violations since the beginning of the year to 2,427 violations.

The report explained that the October violations included 126 military incursions, 115 cases of overflights, 44 temporary checkpoints, 36 raids, 30 cases of detention, and 14 artillery shelling incidents, in addition to 28 other violations, which included digging, bulldozing, and shooting.

Quneitra Governorate topped the list of areas most exposed to Israeli violations, with 285 violations, followed by Daraa with 74, then the Damascus countryside with 29, and Damascus with 7 violations.

The monthly monitoring report issued by the “Quneitra Information Directorate” recorded 7 cases of people “still detained in the occupation prisons, and 23 cases of arrest followed by release.” It also mentioned the targeting of two young men on a motorcycle, wounding one of them and arresting them before they were later released, and the injury of a young man with a disability. One of the wood collectors was shot in the foot, then he was released.

In the agricultural sector, the report documented “the shooting of sheep herders in the vicinity of Kudna, the prevention of shepherds from entering the Jubata Wood Reserve, and the death of sheep after they were targeted by an occupation patrol.” It also reported bulldozing operations in the Al-Hamiriyah hill in Taranja, while farmers and shepherds were prevented from approaching.

In Ruwayhinah, the village mayor, Muhammad al-Ahmad, describes the cumulative impact of these practices on the residents, estimating the area of land and pastures seized by the occupation in the village at approximately 5 to 6 thousand dunams, according to what the official SANA agency reported.

A few days after the “Hamoud Church” operation in the southern Karak Governorate, and the retaliatory response carried out by the Armed Forces (the Arab Army) with Royal Air Force aircraft against the “ISIS” organization in southern Syria, Thursday’s operation took place in Amman, resulting in the killing of a security man and the injury of another, at the hands of a “terrorist” who was recently released, after the expiry of a sentence issued against him against the backdrop of a terrorist case dating back to the year 2020, related to planning to carry out terrorist operations.

Targeting security personnel in front of ministries, embassies and official institutions has been repeated on more than one occasion and location. But what observers said was that the terrorist attack, even if it appeared to be an “individual and isolated” act, similar to “lone wolf” operations, does not deny that terrorists received instructions from electronic accounts belonging to ISIS, which does not hide its hostility to Jordan, setting a bank of targets to carry out its operations, according to what was revealed by external communications between the cell that carried out the church operation and the organization.

Retired security experts point out the ease of carrying and using white weapons, especially with the availability of the elements of “surprise and surprise.” They point out that the nature of the General Security Service’s work imposes a different style of dealing with civilians, given its direct contact with them.

Targeting security from several sides

Jordanian security is making clear efforts to combat extremism and terrorism, which constituted sufficient reason for terrorist organizations to target the country. In recent memory, several terrorist operations have emerged that succeeded in targeting Jordanians - civilians and security personnel - as well as sovereign institutions. These are milestones that require reviewing some of the security methods used in pursuing and following up on terrorists, whether at home or abroad.

The terrorist organization does not seek to target only Jordanian security, but also extends its targeting to the security of civilians, which was embodied in the “Hamoud Church” incident, which left 9 dead and 40 wounded. But what was most dangerous in this process was the attempt to “sow discord” between the Muslims and Christians of the southern Karak Governorate, which Jordanians view as a model of religious brotherhood and coexistence.

The intentions of “lone wolves” cannot be revealed, even if they are under surveillance, as intentions and plans may arise out of revenge, as a reaction at any moment, especially in light of several fatwas urging terrorists to kill security personnel. Because prior oversight is not enough, what is most important, according to experts, is “work to rehabilitate those convicted in terrorism cases, through open dialogue with moderate religious leaders and authorities.” Among them is Bassam Al-Amoush, a former leader in the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a former member of the Islamic Action Front and currently the Umma Party, who won the party’s seats in a number of parliamentary sessions, before he split from it due to disagreements. He engaged in dialogues with a number of ISIS prisoners to point out the legal violations committed by terrorist and Takfiri groups.

In connection with this discussion, a number of those who carried out terrorist operations had previously been convicted in terrorism cases, and had completed their sentences, before returning to engage in their societies again. However, according to human rights reports, those convicted in terrorism cases live in shared dormitories, and the years of imprisonment have not contributed to changing the nature of the extremist ideas they hold, which constitute a “creed” among terrorist organization fighters in general, whether they are within groups and cells, or as “lone wolves” integrated into society.

The latest terrorist operation that targeted a security guard in front of the Sri Lankan embassy, ​​located on a main street west of Amman, revealed the existence of a previous indictment against its perpetrator, who pledged allegiance to the leader of ISIS in 2019. He was arrested in 2020, and was sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2022. This raised questions about the difference between the duration of the judicial ruling and the actual prison term. The same applies to the perpetrators of the “Hamoud Church” operation in Karak Governorate, as the presence of former convicts in terrorism cases is a prominent feature among the perpetrators of terrorist operations in Jordan.

Recruitment of Jordanian youth into terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq has been active through social networking sites since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, and the spread of terrorist cells on the northern border between the two countries, after those sites formed havens to threaten national security, and they are sites outside the control of the new Syrian regime.

Possible engagements and fears of completed plans

The above clearly indicates, according to experts, the possibility of the existence of external organizational connections and sleeper cells inside Jordan. The stage of "latency" that ISIS has experienced in recent years has led it to re-evaluate its plans, operations, and the map of the spread of its cells among the population in southern Syria, taking advantage of the loss of security and the lack of control over open spaces in the region.

The reviews show that the organization has redeployed in ways appropriate to the stage, taking advantage of Jordanian security’s preoccupation with the priorities of confronting Iranian attacks on Jordan and the Gulf states, since the end of last February.

Terrorist organizations agree, despite their contradictions, to target Jordanian security. On the one hand, ISIS is active in the north, and on the other hand, Shiite militias are active on the eastern border with Iraq, and they are organizations supported by Tehran. The threat to Jordan came from both the northern and eastern borders, and these organizations were active during the period under the patronage of the previous Syrian regime, in addition to the areas that included drug factories and cross-border smuggling networks, which formed a starting point for threatening Jordanian security in various ways.

Jordanian security concerns, according to informed sources, highlight the resurgence of communications between sleeper cells in the country and terrorist groups abroad, which requires expanding the scope of oversight, based on a database that includes Jordanians belonging to terrorist groups, whether outside or inside prison, with the need to “fill any potential security gaps” that terrorist groups may seek to exploit to target Jordanian security.

There is a question that observers are asking, in light of the short period of time between the release of some of the perpetrators of the “Hamoud Church” operation from prison and its implementation, and the recent release of the perpetrator of the Thursday operation after serving his sentence, and it relates to the possibility that the perpetrators received instructions from terrorist prisoners who were with them.

Fears of the presence of loopholes that might confuse the investigation and investigation processes prompted the Jordanian security services, in conjunction with developments in the case, to carry out a series of large-scale raids in various regions of the Kingdom, including the north, center, and south, and began on Thursday night and continued until Friday dawn.

The raids included the Al-Mazar Al-Janoubi area in the Karak Governorate, southern Jordan, and extended to the Irbid Governorate, in the north of the Kingdom. They also included the areas of Marka, Al-Rajm Al-Shami, and Al-Jubaiha, north of the capital, Amman, and the Rusaifeh area within the borders of the Zarqa Governorate.

The residents of the Gaza Strip are waiting for a new winter that will be harsh, as was the case over the course of three years of war that exhausted them in various aspects of life. They now live in tents, most of which are worn out, and barely protect them from the scorching sun that hits them in the summer, and from the heavy winter that drowns them and turns them into moving pools of water.

As residents of the Gaza Strip awaited the first depression on Friday evening, which will continue until Sunday morning, they did not find new solutions that could prevent them from drowning in light of the expected heavy rains for long hours, according to what meteorology expected.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), 94 percent (1.98 million people) of the population of the Gaza Strip are in need of shelter and non-food aid, due to the deterioration of living conditions and the difficulty of accessing basic services, indicating that 85 percent of them face critical or catastrophic shelter needs, noting the presence of “a severe deficiency in shelter conditions or lack of access to basic services and non-food aid.”

Winter preparedness

Al-Ghazi Islam Abu Hazima (47 years old), a resident of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, and a displaced person in Mawasi Khan Yunis, is preparing for the rain that will arrive in the hours of Friday evening, by placing some sand on the edges and sides of the tent, to prevent water from leaking into it. However, he confirms in his interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that this plan is not considered sound, and that previous experiences during heavy rains in the previous winter were failures.

Abu Hazima lives with his family of seven members in a worn-out tent, which barely protects them from a hot summer. He wonders about its ability to protect them from a harsh winter heavy with rain, pointing out that this is the second year in which he has faced the harshness of his tent, along with the family’s belongings and possessions, drowning.

According to the Palestinian NGO Network, more than 1,000 sites and camps to shelter displaced people may be flooded during the winter, with many of them residing in low-lying areas that lack protection and rainwater drainage, coinciding with a severe shortage of tents and shelter supplies.

200 thousand worn out tents

According to the Winter Emergency Committee in the Gaza Strip, 7,800 tents in dangerous areas are threatened by floods, torrents, and sea waves, while there are 200,000 worn-out tents that expose their residents to the risk of drowning and extreme cold, pointing out that there are 1.5 million displaced people facing the dangers of winter.

Ghazi Nisreen Al-Qarshali, displaced in a tent inside the courtyard of a shelter center, says that her family’s tent was greatly worn out due to the winter and summer seasons, and she suffered a lot last year from the intensity of the rains, and was exposed to drowning more than once, which made it unfit for life.

Al-Qurshali adds with a sigh: “We used to live a good life, and now we are suffering and looking for something simple to restore our dignity... The tent does not provide dignity or anything else, only suffering and diseases,” noting that those who suffer most from this are children, women and the elderly, who face a threat to their health due to the extreme cold.

11 children died in the winter of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health in Gaza and UN agencies.

Threatened buildings

Suffering is not limited to tent residents; Rather, it extends to families who live or have been displaced to buildings threatened with collapse, as happened the previous winter, and more recently following Israeli raids in their vicinity. According to estimates by government agencies in Gaza, there are about two thousand buildings at risk of collapse.

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing of the Hamas government in Gaza called on the residents of hundreds of buildings to evacuate, while several buildings were required to be evacuated because they were likely to collapse, in order to preserve the lives of their residents, setting a deadline of days for evacuation before the security authorities intervene to impose the evacuation process.

Escalation does not stop

This comes in light of the continued deterioration of the security situation in the Gaza Strip, and the escalation of casualties with the continuation of Israeli raids. On Friday, it was announced the death of a Palestinian student who was injured a week ago in a raid that targeted the Islamic University in Gaza City, while the death of a prominent field activist in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, was announced in a raid that targeted him in the Beach Camp, west of Gaza City, about a week ago.

Late on Thursday evening, an Israeli drone killed a Hamas field activist in a raid targeting him in the Beach Camp, while another activist was critically injured. This was preceded by a series of raids and shootings from Israeli vehicles and marches, which led to the killing of 4 other Palestinians, including a child, a woman, and an officer in the government’s “Internal Security” security service, following a raid targeting him in the town of Zawaida in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

For the second day within a week, members of armed gangs stormed displacement camps, kidnapped Palestinians and took them to Israeli military sites, where they kidnapped dozens of residents of a camp at the intersection of the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, amid artillery shelling and cover from drones, before releasing all of them except for one who remained detained by the Israeli army, where they were asked, after interrogation, to evacuate their camp and head to the western areas of it.

Dozens had been kidnapped from another camp in Khan Yunis a few days ago, by members of an armed gang under Israeli air cover, before they were released, and 4 detainees were kept in the custody of the Israeli army.