Human Rights Watch: Israel commits 'war crime' in southern Syria
The New York-based international human rights organization said in a report released in Beirut that the abuses also included denial of access to livelihoods and arbitrary detention of a number of Syrians and their "unlawful transfer" to Israel.
The rights group said that after the ouster of the Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime in December, Israel advanced into the U.N.-monitored demilitarized zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the portion of Quneitra governorate that remained under Syrian control.
Israel has established nine military posts stretching from Mount Hermon through Quneitra city to parts of western Daraa and has intensified airstrikes on military infrastructure, according to the group.
Israeli officials, it said, stated that the goal is to "completely demilitarize" southern Syria, and that Israeli forces will remain indefinitely in the newly seized territory.
"Israel's military forces operating in Syria should not have a free hand to seize homes, demolish them and drive families out," said Hiba Zayadin, senior Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Zayadin said Israel's recent actions in southern Syria "are not legitimate acts of military necessity, but pages out of the playbook used in the occupied Palestinian territory and other parts of the region, stripping residents of basic rights and freedoms."
The report indicated that Human Rights Watch interviewed between June and September 2025 local residents whose homes were demolished or who were prevented from accessing their agricultural land.
It quoted relatives and witnesses as saying that eight Syrians, detained since December 2024, were transferred to Israel, where they remain held "incommunicado without charge."
The group said its researchers also reviewed photographs and videos provided by interviewees and analyzed satellite imagery to corroborate their accounts, determine when and where military installations were built and assess the extent of areas that were razed or demolished.
It said Israeli forces demolished at least 12 buildings June 16, displacing eight families from their homes in the village of al-Hamidiya in the U.N.-monitored demilitarized zone along the "line of separation" with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Israeli soldiers, who expelled the families in December, told them the expulsions and demolitions were necessary because of a newly established military installation nearby.
Israeli forces also constructed another military installation in Jubata al-Khashab, and began to clear large swaths of land, including a forest reserve more than a century old.
Satellite imagery analyzed by the group confirmed that construction of both military installations began in early January less than 1 kilometer north of the edges of the respective villages.
Human Rights Watch emphasized that "unjustified" forced displacement in occupied territory "is a war crime."
It said Israel is also "prohibited from transferring detainees outside the occupied territory into Israel, regardless of allegations" while destruction of civilian property is banned if "not directly linked to and strictly required by active combat" and "not justified by long-term strategic or security considerations."
It dismissed Israel's justifications, saying that its documented actions in southern Syria "violated the laws of war." The destruction of homes appeared to be "part of a broader strategy" to secure their military presence rather than responding to "an immediate threat."
The watchdog group said governments -- citing the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom -- should suspend any military support and bilateral cooperation with Israel as long as its forces continue "to commit widespread, serious abuses, including war crimes, with impunity."
They also should impose targeted sanctions on officials responsible for abuses and push for accountability through universal-jurisdiction cases and support for the International Criminal Court proceedings, it said.
"The inaction of other governments in response to Israel's unlawful conduct across the region is allowing it to apply its repressive tactics with impunity," Zayadin said. "The international community should act now to suspend military support, impose targeted measures, and back accountability, including at the ICC."
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