Hundreds rally across Syria to protest Israeli incursions into the country’s southern provinces, including an attack this week that killed a man with disability.
Syrians rallied in several locations on Friday, including Damascus and Homs in central Syria, condemning Israeli incursions and attacks in the southern provinces of Quneitra and Daraa, AFP correspondents and state media reported.
In Damascus, outside a United Nations building, the family of a Syrian man kidnapped by Israel demanded his release, with children holding posters reading, “I want my dad.”
Protester Taysir al-Hariri told AFP that demonstrators aimed to show the world that Syrians stand strong and united against “Israeli incursions and against anyone who is tempted to tamper... with national security.”
State media released footage of other rallies showing protesters holding posters reading, “We are all Moaz.” Moaz Salameh al-Baair was a young man with Down syndrome who was killed by Israeli fire on Thursday during an incursion in Daraa province.
Demonstrators in the town of Khan Arnabah carried banners in Arabic and English denouncing the repeated violations and demanded the release of kidnapped Syrians held by Israeli forces.
Israeli forces have violated Syrian territory through strikes and repeated incursions in several provinces, especially the southern territories.
The Israeli attacks have continued since the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime took power after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024.
Israel also sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone. The area, which covers 235 square kilometers, was established in 1974 under a UN-brokered ceasefire agreement to keep Israeli and Syrian forces apart, with UN peacekeepers tasked with monitoring the zone.
Syria has repeatedly condemned Israeli incursions as violations of its sovereignty and called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from its territory.
State media also reported that Israeli forces have expanded their aggression in parts of Quneitra province and blocked several roads. The forces also plan to keep troops in a so-called security zone in southern Syria, where Israel seeks to establish a broader demilitarized area.
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