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E-mail Xinhua, March 25, 2025
DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Four civilians were killed after Israeli forces shelled the town of Koayiah in the southern Syrian province of Daraa on Tuesday, Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported.
Israeli forces attempted to infiltrate the town amid heavy reconnaissance aircraft activity, as well as bombardment with multiple tank shells, resulting in the deaths and several injuries, including a woman, it added.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based monitoring group, said the shelling followed an attempt by Israeli forces to advance into the town "from the Al-Wadi area, before clashes erupted with young men in the region, which forced Israeli forces to withdraw."
The SOHR said clashes and shelling continued in the area, accompanied by Israeli helicopter overflights and heavy vehicle movements, which have sparked further displacement from Koayiah and neighboring towns over fears of escalation.
Also on Tuesday, an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that troops from the Israel Defense Forces "identified several terrorists who opened fire toward them in southern Syria," and thus "returned fire in response," with the Air Force striking them.
The spokesperson added that "hits were identified."
The strike was the latest in a series of Israeli airstrikes in recent months, following the deployment of Israeli troops into the United Nations-monitored buffer zone within Syria and their seizure of the Syrian side of Mount Hermon in the occupied Golan Heights.
Following the downfall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel destroyed almost all installations and equipment of the previous Syrian army and continued to pound any possible military formation in southern Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said that his country would not tolerate military presence in southern Syria and the southern countryside of Damascus, a demand completely rejected by Syria's new interim government. Enditem
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