Twelve Israeli military vehicles have entered the village of Saida al-Golan in the Quneitra countryside, southern Syria, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground.
The latest Israeli incursion on Tuesday, a further violation of Syrian sovereignty, comes as a Syrian delegation is holding negotiations with Israeli counterparts in the French capital, Paris, under the coordination and mediation of the United States, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.
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The talks were expected to continue into a second and final day on Tuesday, even as “Israel is again violating Syrian sovereignty and undermining talks”, Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna reported from Beit Jinn outside the capital, Damascus.
There are “vast chasms” between Syria’s and Israel’s desired outcomes, Oghanna said.
Israel is seeking full demilitarisation of southern Syria, as well as maintaining military outposts in Jabal al-Sheikh, known in Israel as Mount Hermon, and protection for the Druze minority, which it used as a pretext last July to bombard Damascus as fighting erupted in Suwayda.
“The Syrian requests are far simpler – they simply want the Israelis to leave … and to end all strikes, incursions and hostilities into sovereign Syrian territory,” Oghanna said.
The US, for its part, sees containment as its top priority, including avoiding regional escalation and curbing Iranian influence.
Marie Forestier, a nonresident senior fellow for the Atlantic Council’s Syria Project, told Al Jazeera the distance between Syrian, Israel and American goals is “very difficult”, especially given that “Israel is doing everything to destabilise Syria”.
“This is an absolutely counterproductive strategy,” Forestier added. “Israel might create more chaos in Syria, which could then bring to power people who could target Israel.”
A government source told SANA on Monday that the resumption of these negotiations affirms Syria’s unwavering commitment to restoring its non-negotiable national rights.
Since the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, Israel has extended its occupation of Syrian territory beyond the Golan Heights and staged numerous raids and bombardments in southern Syria.
For months, Israeli forces have conducted near-daily incursions into southern Syria, particularly in the Quneitra governorate, carrying out arrests, erecting checkpoints, and bulldozing land, all of which have prompted growing public anger and unrest.
Despite a reduction in direct military threats, the Israeli army continues to carry out air raids that have caused civilian casualties and destroyed Syrian army sites and facilities.
Over the past year, Israel has launched more than 600 air, drone and artillery attacks across Syria, averaging nearly two a day, according to a tally by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).
Disengagement accord
After al-Assad’s fall, Israel declared the 1974 Disengagement Agreement – brokered after the 1973 war, in which Syria failed to regain the occupied Golan Heights – void.
The agreement had established protocols for a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone, which Israel has since violated, advancing deeper into Syrian territory.
Citing al-Assad’s flight, Israel says the accord no longer applies, while carrying out air raids, ground incursions, and reconnaissance flights; setting up checkpoints; and arresting or disappearing Syrians.
Last November, Israeli forces carried out a deadly raid on Beit Jinn, resulting in the deaths of 13 civilians, including two children.
Although some residents want the Israelis “to leave with a guarantee from the Syrian government and foreign powers to enforce it”, Oghanna said, others “haven’t even heard of the talks happening today in Paris”.
“They just want their land free of foreign intervention and foreign armies,” Oghanna added.
Syria has not responded with attacks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in late December that Israel was eager to ensure a peaceful border with Syria, and US President Donald Trump said he was sure Israel would get along with Syria’s current president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led a lightning offensive to topple al-Assad in late 2024.
Talks have been ongoing on and off to reach a deal on a security agreement between Israel and Syria for months, without a deal or concrete progress being announced.
The outcome of this week’s meetings, the Atlantic Council’s Forestier told Al Jazeera, depends largely on “how much pressure Trump has put on Netanyahu”.
“It’s difficult to see, now, how Netanyahu can accept to withdraw his forces” and give up the ability to carry out airstrikes in Syria, Forestier said.
“A breakthrough will depend on Netanyahu’s goodwill,” she added.
Syria does not formally recognise Israel, nor does it have any interest in joining Trump’s Abraham Accords, under which a handful of Arab nations have recognised Israel.
Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights is recognised by Washington, but it is rejected by the vast majority of the international community.