Israeli troops have captured alleged operatives from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) during a covert cross-border raid in southern Syria, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The operation, conducted on July 7 by reservists from the Alexandroni Brigade and the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504, targeted Tel Kwdana in Syria’s Quneitra province, near the Israeli-Syrian border. The IDF released video footage of the mission, showing troops advancing into the area during the nighttime raid.
The IDF said the suspects were arrested without resistance and later transferred to Israel for further questioning. The military did not specify how many individuals were detained.
A report from the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that an Israeli raid in Quneitra on Monday “targeting several homes,” has “ended in the arrest of two brothers.”
According to the IDF, the cell captured near Tel Kwdana was preparing attacks against Israeli troops stationed in the demilitarized buffer zone.
Lt.-Col. Y, commander of the IDF’s 7012th Battalion, said the suspects had been under surveillance for months. “Iran has been building terror infrastructure across Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. There are still Iranian elements operating in the region, and it’s our responsibility to stop them,” he told Ynet.
The raid marked Israel’s second operation in less than a week aimed at disrupting Iranian-backed activity near the Golan Heights. On July 2, Israeli troops captured another Iran-linked cell.
The recent operation followed an earlier raid on June 12, when Israeli forces detained seven Hamas-linked individuals in southern Syria during a 12-day conflict with Iran.
Since December, Israeli forces have expanded their presence in the Quneitra region and on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, citing the need to prevent Iranian-backed militias from filling the vacuum left by the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The United Nations has condemned Israel’s growing footprint in the buffer zone, calling it a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement. Israel, however, contends that the accord is no longer enforceable due to the collapse of Syria’s central government.
