Military vehicles were seen travelling through Wadi al-Raqad before advancing into residential areas of Jamla in the Yarmouk Basin. Israeli personnel were also seen stopping passers-by as armed forces remained deployed in the area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three Israeli military vehicles entered the village before later withdrawing.

"An Israeli military force consisting of three vehicles, including two armoured personnel carriers, infiltrated the village of Jamla within the Yarmouk Basin area in the western countryside of Daraa, and deployed around it for a period of time, with no information reported about clashes or injuries resulting from the incursion, before later withdrawing toward the occupied territories in the Golan," the organisation reported.

The Israeli military had not commented on the incursion by the time of publication.

The movement came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli forces deployed on Mount Hermon in southern Syria. He was accompanied by Defence Minister Yisrael Katz and IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Tamir Yadai.

During the visit, Netanyahu said Israel controlled the area stretching from the summit of Mount Hermon to the Yarmouk River and west towards the Mediterranean Sea. He also said Israel would not allow any "terrorist army" to establish itself along its borders.

Syria's Foreign Ministry condemned Netanyahu and Katz's visit to sites held by Israeli forces on Mount Hermon inside Syrian territory, describing it as "provocative and a blatant violation" of Syria's sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law.

Netanyahu previously visited Israeli forces inside Syria in December 2024, shortly after Israel took control of the buffer zone, and again in November 2025.

The court convicted Bashar al-Assad of crimes including premeditated murder , torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity. Six other former officials were also sentenced to death in absentia.

But one member of the Assad family was actually in the Damascus courtroom.

Atef Najib, Assad's cousin and former head of political security in Daraa, stood inside a cage wearing a prison uniform as he received his own death sentence.

Najib's case takes Syria back to where its uprising began. In 2011, 15 young people were detained and tortured after anti-government graffiti appeared in Daraa. Their treatment helped trigger protests that spread across the country, followed by a government crackdown and a civil war lasting almost 14 years.

For Syria's new authorities, the verdicts are part of a wider effort to hold former Assad-era officials accountable and establish a system of transitional justice .

But the process is already facing scrutiny.

Human rights and legal observers have raised concerns about the speed and fairness of the proceedings. Monitors of Najib's trial reported inadequate legal representation and weaknesses in witness testimony, while questions remain about applying crimes against humanity under Syria's existing legal framework.

Rights advocates who welcomed the move towards accountability have also stressed that future proceedings need to respect fair-trial standards, defence rights and judicial independence.

The challenge is particularly important in a country still dealing with violence after Assad's fall, including killings involving Alawite and Druze communities.

Questions also remain about whether Bashar and Maher Assad will ever face Syrian justice in person. Both remain in Russia, making their sentences largely symbolic unless they are eventually returned to Syria.