The presence of Israeli troops who entered a U.N. buffer zone on the border with Syria following the fall of President Bashar Assad is frustrating the local population.

Local residents want new government to push out IDF, which it accuses of demolishing homes and orchards; military source says army 'unaware of incidents'

French journalist Sylvain Mercadier and his colleague Syrian lawyer Mohammad Al-Fayyad were detained and mistreated by Israeli occupation forces in Quneitra, Sy

The post IDF detains and later releases French journalist in southern Syria appeared first on The Times of Israel.

The situation in Quneitra, a province in southern Syria, is tense as Israeli forces advance into a UN-patrolled buffer zone amid local protests. This follows the recent fall of President Bashar Assad.

A Syrian mayor told AFP he had meetings with Israeli officers as the military conducted incursions in his village inside a Golan Heights buffer zone, saying they had demanded locals relinquish their weapons.

Since the fall of the Assad regime on Oct. 8, Israeli troops have taken up positions inside and beyond the Golan buffer zone, including on the strategic Syrian side of Mount Hermon. The Israeli Air Force has conducted hundreds of strikes on Assad military assets.

Residents in Quneitra have expressed fear that Israeli forces will advance further in the area as Syria's new leaders have yet to take action against such.

A main road in the provincial capital of Quneitra in southern Syria was blocked with mounds of dirt, fallen palm trees and a metal pole that appeared to have once been a traffic light. On the other side of the barriers,

Israeli forces entered the area — which lies in a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel — soon after the fall of President Bashar Assad last month in the country's 13-year civil war.

In-depth: Israel took advantage of the Assad regime's collapse to expand its occupation of the Golan Heights, with Syrians in Quneitra wary of what comes next.

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