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The Israeli army shelled agricultural lands with artillery on Sunday in the countryside of the southern Syrian province of Quneitra, coinciding with the resumption of excavation work in the area as part of what is known as the "Sufa 53 Line".
The official "Al-Ikhbariya Syrian" channel reported that "Israeli occupation forces shelled agricultural land located between the village of Bariqa and the town of Kudana in the southern Quneitra countryside with an artillery shell."
This comes simultaneously with the resumption by Israeli forces on Sunday of excavation work alongside the separation line with the occupied Syrian Golan, west of the village of Al-Asha in the Quneitra governorate countryside, within the framework of what Damascus described as "continued violations in the buffer zone covered by the disengagement agreement."
Israel began implementing the project under the name "Sufa 53" or "Grand Storm" in mid-2022 from the vicinity of the town of Hader in northern Quneitra, before it extended across the towns of Jubata al-Khashab and Al-Hamidiyya, then Al-Qahtaniyya, Ruwaihinah, Beer Ajam, and Bariqa in the center of the governorate.
The expansion of the project has rendered thousands of dunums of agricultural land in the Quneitra countryside unfit for farming and grazing, and negatively impacted water flow and the natural infrastructure of the region, according to previous statements by local residents to Anadolu.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on December 8, 2024, Israel has expanded the scope of its military operations in Syria and its forces have advanced into the buffer zone in the occupied Syrian Golan and adjacent locations.
Syria demands the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they have advanced into and affirms its adherence to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, while Israel says its movements are linked to security considerations.
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