Abdulsalam Fayez and Tarek Chouiref<\/p>\n
05 October 2026\u2022Update: 05 October 2026<\/p>\n
Israeli forces restarted excavation work Sunday west of Al-Asha village in Syria’s southern Quneitra as part of a project known as the \u201cSufa Line,\u201d or \u201cSufa 53,\u201d according to Syria Alikhbaria TV.<\/p>\n
Military vehicles and bulldozers were seen digging near the separation line with the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, extending a route that runs through rural communities from northern to southern Quneitra.<\/p>\n
For residents, the project has meant the loss of agricultural land, damage to grazing areas and vegetation, and changes to the natural flow of rainwater in a province where many families depend on farming and livestock.<\/p>\n
What is Sufa 53?<\/p>\n
Israel began work on Sufa 53 in mid-2022 near Hadr in northern Quneitra before extending it south through areas near Jubata al-Khashab, Al-Hamidiyah, Qahtaniyah, Bir Ajam and Bariqa toward Al-Asha.<\/p>\n
The project includes a military road roughly eight meters wide, deep trenches, earth berms reaching about five meters in height, observation posts and military positions.<\/p>\n
Israel claims that the fortifications are designed to prevent possible attacks by Iran-backed armed groups.<\/p>\n
Construction continued after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government in December 2024 and intensified as Israeli forces expanded their presence in and around the area of separation in southern Syria.<\/p>\n
Syrian accounts say Israeli troops have moved between 300 and 1,000 meters into the area in some locations as work on the project expanded.<\/p>\n
Farmland lost, livelihoods hit<\/p>\n
The impact has been particularly severe on agricultural communities.<\/p>\n
Local authorities previously estimated that around 12,000 dunams (1,200 hectares) of land in northern and central Quneitra had been affected by Israeli construction.<\/p>\n
In Jubata al-Khashab alone, local officials said around 7,000 dunams (700 hectares) of land had been lost, while another 6,000 dunams (600 hectares) belonging to Al-Hamidiyah and Al-Hurriyah were taken over for the project.<\/p>\n
Residents have also reported extensive damage to grazing land, trees and wild vegetation that had provided an important source of income for local families.<\/p>\n
Quneitra media director Mohammad al-Saeed previously told Anadolu that the project had caused widespread damage across the province, while access to affected areas remained limited.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Mazen Maryoud, mayor of Jubata al-Khashab, said the trenches had disrupted rainwater flows and contributed to soil erosion, directly affecting farming and livestock.<\/p>\n
Residents also say the construction has come alongside repeated Israeli raids, detentions, checkpoints and restrictions on access to agricultural land.<\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned the renewed work on Sufa 53, describing it as a \u201cflagrant breach\u201d of the 1974 disengagement agreement and a violation of international resolutions.<\/p>\n
The ministry warned that continued Israeli incursions and military activity threatened regional security and stability and undermined international law.<\/p>\n
Damascus reaffirmed its right to exercise sovereignty over all Syrian territory and urged the international community to uphold Syria\u2019s territorial integrity and act against continued Israeli violations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abdulsalam Fayez and Tarek Chouiref 05 October 2026\u2022Update: 05 October 2026 Israeli forces restarted excavation work Sunday west…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-636847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}