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Israeli forces shelled the countryside of Syria’s southern Quneitra province on Sunday, according to Alikhbariah TV.
The broadcaster said Israeli forces fired an artillery shell near the village of Al-Samdaniya Al-Sharqiya in the central Quneitra countryside.
No casualties or damage were immediately reported.
The attack came a day after Israeli forces fired six artillery shells at the outskirts of Al-Rafid town in southern Quneitra, according to the broadcaster.
An Israeli force comprising five military vehicles also advanced into the outskirts of the town before withdrawing without making any arrests.
On Thursday, Israeli forces fired two artillery shells toward the vicinity of eastern Tal al-Ahmar in southern Quneitra.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces detained a shepherd west of Al-Rafid before releasing him hours later.
Areas of southern Syria, particularly the Quneitra and Daraa provinces, have witnessed near-daily Israeli incursions and attacks, including raids, searches, arrests and the establishment of military checkpoints.
Israel has occupied most of the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967.
Following the fall of the Bashar Assad regime on Dec. 8, 2024, Israel declared the 1974 Disengagement Agreement collapsed and occupied the demilitarized buffer zone as well as other positions, including the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
On July 26, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said Damascus was working with other countries toward reaching a security agreement with Israel.
He said the success of such an agreement could pave the way for comprehensive peace without Syria relinquishing its claim to the occupied Golan Heights.
The latest Israeli shelling came as U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack urged restraint in southern Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province after a prominent local figure left the region following tensions with supporters of a pro-Israeli Druze leader.
Sweida city and other parts of the province are under the control of local armed groups.
They are the last major areas outside the authority of Syria’s new government, which is seeking to extend its rule across the country.
Among those groups is the so-called National Guard, which is affiliated with Druze leader Hikmat al-Hijri, a vocal critic of the new authorities who recently said his community was “an integral part of the state of Israel.”
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Syrian state television said Friday that “outlaw groups” in Sweida had forced prominent local figure Atef Hunaidi to leave “after he was kidnapped ... from his home due to a statement he released condemning Hijri’s remarks.”
It said Hunaidi later arrived in Damascus.
Barrack said that “where governance is absent, gangs fill the void, and today a very few with toxic motives are turning on their own.”
“Men such as Atef Hunaidi, arbitrarily detained and driven from his home,” Barrack said.
He said his team was in contact with Hunaidi “and with others caught in this campaign of intracommunal violence” and urged “restraint in action and communication in earnest.”
His statement did not name Hijri.
Barrack said a “roadmap for peace” in Sweida signed last year offered “a path to the dignified reintegration of the province into Syria, with the full rights and the full obligations of citizenship for its Druze community.”
It was, he added, “the only one that leads anywhere but back to grief.”
Hijri’s National Guard said Friday that its fighters had “moved to contain the situation” after tensions spiked and people gathered outside Hunaidi’s home “after his recent stance.”
“At his personal request,” Hunaidi was taken to a checkpoint at a nearby village, where he “took a taxi for Damascus,” the group said.
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Tensions have risen in Sweida in recent days.
This week, state media said clashes with local armed groups in the province left 10 government security personnel wounded. The unrest came after two civilians were killed in similar clashes west of Sweida city.
Tensions have remained high in the province since clashes between Druze and government-aligned forces in July last year led to some of the worst communal violence since the fall of Assad in 2024.
Israel, which also has a Druze population, intervened militarily with strikes, saying it was defending the minority community.
Washington, Israel’s ally, has drawn closer to Syria’s new authorities.
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