A boy looks across the landscape beside a hole left by an Israeli shell in the village of Abdin, Daraa province, Syria, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
As Israeli troops and vehicles entered the town of Abdin in southern Syria, residents on June 29 blocked the roads with rocks and some young men and boys threw stones to push back the military patrol.
Tensions in this part of the country created by a buffer zone occupied by Israeli forces have flared into violence in recent days, leaving residents anxious that more escalation is coming.
Residents of Abdin, located near a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone now controlled by Israeli troops, tried to resist against a military incursion over the weekend.
Residents said Israeli troops fired warnings shots at walls and between the angry protesters, before firing artillery rounds at the village.
No one was harmed in the exchange, but most residents fled, and most were still too afraid to return on Monday. Many fear that there will now be more intense incursions and raids following the skirmish.
“They come into the village regularly, every few days,” said resident Mohammad al-Hassan, standing not far from a group of children looking at an exploded shell. “They come in armored 4x4 vehicles, they roam around the village and search some houses, they knock on doors and if people don’t answer the door they break it down and enter the houses. Women and children start screaming, it’s a terrifying thing, them coming here.”
The clashes in Abdin were the second outbreak of violence in less than 24 hours. Earlier on June 29, the Israeli military announced that it had killed armed men in southern Syria without giving details.
An Israeli military official said that Israeli soldiers had killed two militants who were planning on attacking Israeli troops.
The mayor of the Syrian village of Hadar said two unknown people driving a pickup truck just south of the village were killed in an attack, and that their bodies were taken by the Israeli military.
“There was the sound of an explosion when it happened,” Imad Hassoun told The Associated Press. “They weren’t from Hadar. If they were, we would immediately know.”
