(MENAFN) An Israeli airstrike on a village in southern Syria’s Quneitra countryside resulted in the death of one individual, local media reported Tuesday.

Media detailed that the Israeli military targeted a residence in Turnejeh village, located north of Quneitra, killing a young resident. The broadcaster also described an earlier overnight operation in the nearby Suwaisa village, where Israeli forces fired flare shells and conducted searches amid clashes with local residents.

The media also reported that a young individual was apprehended by the army forces.

This marks the fourth Israeli raid on Quneitra in August alone, a region situated within the disengagement zone of the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, took to the US-based social media platform X, stating the Israeli army “will remain at the peak of Mount Hermon and in the security zone.” Katz defended the military presence as essential to “protect the Golan and Galilee settlements” and the Druze community in Syria.

For over seven months, Israeli forces have maintained control over Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) and a 15-kilometer (9.3-mile) wide security zone in southern Syria, effectively governing more than 40,000 Syrians within the occupied buffer area.

Following the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation in the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, breaching the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria.

Despite the new Syrian administration, installed since December 2024, posing no apparent threat, Israeli military operations have frequently crossed into Syrian territory, carrying out airstrikes that have killed civilians and damaged military and civilian infrastructure.

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