What happened
On 23 February 2025 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the "complete demilitarisation of southern Syria, including the Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda provinces", and said Israel would not allow forces of HTS or of the new Syrian army to enter the area south of Damascus. On 25 February Israeli aircraft struck military sites in the south — a military unit headquarters south-west of Damascus and positions in Daraa province, including Tell al-Hara — which the Israeli military described as command centres and weapons sites. Syria's national dialogue conference, meeting the same day, rejected the statements as provocative and condemned the Israeli incursion into Syrian territory.
The declaration turned an operational pattern into a stated policy: a zone south of the capital in which the new state's army is not to deploy, enforced from the air. It is the reason Israel's strikes after the December 2024 campaign concentrate on the army's bases between Damascus and the Jordanian border rather than on residual strategic capability, and the reason the demilitarisation of the south is a term of the security negotiation rather than a background condition.
Confidence: High
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