Funeral in Nawa, 3 April 2025.
Invasion timeline
Tracking Israel’s advance into Syria beyond the 1974 ceasefire lines.
3 MAY 2025
Enab Baladi has been reporting on the recent Israeli invasion in both English and Arabic. The following timeline draws on their coverage.
december 10th:
Enab Baladi reported Israeli tanks were advancing further in Quneitra. Syria’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said that there was no justification for such foreign intervention now that Iran’s presence in the country had been eliminated.
december 20th:
An Enab Baladi correspondent in Daraa reported on a protest by locals. When dozens of them headed towards a newly-established Israeli military outpost, Jazira barracks, the soldiers opened fire, injuring one. The post is on a plateau occupied by the Israelis on December 10th. It’s near the towns of Ma’riya and Koya, and overlooks the Ar-Raqqa Valley on one side and the Yarmouk Valley on the other.
The Israeli army had demanded that local dignitaries meet with Israeli officers at their base, and several times they threatened via loudspeakers to storm Ma’riya and Koya, and also Beit Ara, Jamla, and Abidin, if their residents did not comply. The Israelis had made several demands, local leaders told Enab Baladi—for locals to disarm, to ban military clothing, and to register the names of farmers in the area.
One local leader, Hani al-Ghazi, told Enab Baladi that an officer said to a delegation from Koya, “Count your homes, and we will bring you tents in numbers equal to them if you do not fulfill Israel’s demands.”
december 25th: The Israeli army had demanded that local dignitaries meet with Israeli officers at their base, and several times they threatened via loudspeakers to storm Ma’riya and Koya, and also Beit Ara, Jamla, and Abidin, if their residents did not comply. The Israelis had made several demands, local leaders told Enab Baladi—for locals to disarm, to ban military clothing, and to register the names of farmers in the area.
One local leader, Hani al-Ghazi, told Enab Baladi that an officer said to a delegation from Koya, “Count your homes, and we will bring you tents in numbers equal to them if you do not fulfill Israel’s demands.”
The Israeli army opened fire on a demonstration in the Quneitra countryside, and civilians were injured.
january 15th:
One civilian was killed and two others injured when an Israeli drone targeted a Syrian government military convoy in the village of Ghadir al-Bustan, on the border of Quneitra and Daraa.
january 24th:
Enab Baladi reported that the Israeli army had arrested one civilian, and shot and injured another, when both were out gathering firewood near the town of Qudna, southern Quneitra. Israel was by that point establishing several military bases beyond the 1974 ceasefire line, most along the UN buffer zone, and one further into Syrian territory.
january 28th:
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz toured newly-occupied military positions on Mount Hermon—Jabal al-Shaykh in Arabic—and declared that Israeli forces would remain indefinitely.
january 31st:
The Israeli army detained two young men from the Syrian village of Trinjeh in northern Quneitra. According to Enab Baladi’s correspondent, one of the men had fired shots at an Israeli patrol, which then returned fire before taking both of them towards the border area.
february 2nd:
The Israeli army withdrew from the governorate building and the palace of justice in Quneitra, but continued construction work at their other new positions in Syria.
february 24th: UN delegation inspecting the Quneitra Governorate building after Israeli forces withdraw, 4 February 2025.
Demonstrations across several towns in Daraa called for Israeli withdrawal and Syrian unity. These were in response to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s remarks the day before, where he had declared that Israel would not permit Syrian military forces south of Damascus, and had claimed a role for Israel as protector of Syria’s Druze.
february 25th:
Israeli aircraft bombed military sites in Daraa, Suwayda, and Damascus governorates. Israel’s Defence Minister said the attacks were “part of the new policy we defined to calm southern Syria.”
march 17th:
Israeli aircraft bombed several military sites in Daraa, killing three civilians in a residential neighbourhood of Daraa city located just next to the 132nd Brigade’s base. Several more civilians were injured, including four children and a woman, as well as three White Helmets rescue volunteers who were hit when the site was bombed a second time.
march 25th: Israeli airstrike, Daraa city, 17 March 2025. Photos by Syria Civil Defence.
On this day, six people were killed in Koya. Enab Baladi’s correspondent reported that young men from the town had resisted an incursion by the Israeli army, which responded with gunfire, killing two. Israeli tanks from the Jazira barracks then fired about ten shells at the town, killing and injuring more residents, and driving others to flee.
These killings drew international condemnation from several states. “We need to see a stop in Israeli attacks,” said the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, after a Security Council meeting later that day.
april 2nd: Koya residents flee Israeli shelling, 25 March 2025. Photo by Syria Civil Defence.
These killings drew international condemnation from several states. “We need to see a stop in Israeli attacks,” said the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, after a Security Council meeting later that day.
Israel’s attack on the night of 2nd of April was the deadliest of the year so far for Daraa.
The first reports that evening were of Israeli air attacks on targets in other parts of Syria: the T4 air base in eastern Homs governorate, Hama military airport, and the Scientific Research Centre building in the Barzeh residential district of Damascus. These attacks were to “convey a message to Turkey,” an Israeli official said, to deter Turkey from establishing air defences that might prevent Israel from operating in Syrian airspace.
Then came reports of another ground attack in Daraa. Enab Baladi’s correspondent reported that Israeli soldiers had entered the forest at the Jbeiliya Dam, their deepest intrusion yet, and then bombarded the area with dozens of shells. Some civilians from the town of Nawa and nearby villages confronted them.
Nine civilians were killed, and others were injured.
An Israeli army spokesperson later said that the raid had been carried out by paratroopers of Israel’s 210th Division, targeting a military site of the former Assad regime and seizing out-of-service tanks, armored personnel carriers, mortars and rockets.
The UN Special Envoy for Syria issued a fresh statement the next day, condemning “the repeated and intensifying military escalations by Israel in Syria.” Geir Pedersen called on Israel “to cease these attacks which could amount to serious violations of international law and respect Syria’s sovereignty and existing agreements, and also to cease unilateral actions on the ground.”
The first reports that evening were of Israeli air attacks on targets in other parts of Syria: the T4 air base in eastern Homs governorate, Hama military airport, and the Scientific Research Centre building in the Barzeh residential district of Damascus. These attacks were to “convey a message to Turkey,” an Israeli official said, to deter Turkey from establishing air defences that might prevent Israel from operating in Syrian airspace.
Then came reports of another ground attack in Daraa. Enab Baladi’s correspondent reported that Israeli soldiers had entered the forest at the Jbeiliya Dam, their deepest intrusion yet, and then bombarded the area with dozens of shells. Some civilians from the town of Nawa and nearby villages confronted them.
Nine civilians were killed, and others were injured.
An Israeli army spokesperson later said that the raid had been carried out by paratroopers of Israel’s 210th Division, targeting a military site of the former Assad regime and seizing out-of-service tanks, armored personnel carriers, mortars and rockets.
The UN Special Envoy for Syria issued a fresh statement the next day, condemning “the repeated and intensifying military escalations by Israel in Syria.” Geir Pedersen called on Israel “to cease these attacks which could amount to serious violations of international law and respect Syria’s sovereignty and existing agreements, and also to cease unilateral actions on the ground.”
Notes
Enab Baladi English language archive (Politics)
https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/category/politics/
Enab Baladi Arabic language archive (Politics/Syria)
https://www.enabbaladi.net/category/politics/syria/
Transcript of Press Stakeout by UN Special Envoy for Syria Mr Geir O Pedersen, 25 March 2025
https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/transcript-press-stakeout-united-nations-special-envoy-syria-mr-geir-o-pedersen-25-march-2025
Statement by UN Special Envoy for Syria Mr Geir O Pedersen, 3 April 2025
https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/statement-attributable-united-nations-special-envoy-syria-mr-geir-o-pedersen-3-april-2025
Institute for National Security Studies interactive map of Israeli operations in Syria
https://www.inss.org.il/publication/syria-map/#map
EekadFacts Twitter thread verifying locations of Israeli bases with satellite imagery
https://x.com/EekadFacts/status/1901950482450665822
