One Syrian man has been injured as occupying Israeli forces opened fire on a group of demonstrators protesting the regime’s seizure of two villages in southwestern province of Dara’a.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli troops seized the villages of Jamlah and Maariya in the Yarmouk River basin, as their occupation of Syrian territory continues to expand following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government by armed groups, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, on December 8.

Locals protested against the occupation, chanting, “Israel Get Out,” while waving three-starred green, black and white flags flown by opponents of Assad.

Images posted by local Syrian social media accounts showed the protesters carrying banners, which read, “Free, Free Syria, Israel Get Out” in Arabic.

Israeli fire injured a youth, identified by local media as Maher al-Hussein, in the leg as protesters gathered to demand an end to the Israeli military presence in the area and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

A villager from Maariya told AFP news agency that Israeli soldiers had been entering his village and other nearby villages in recent days.

“When the Israelis entered … they sowed fear and horror among the people, the children, the women,” Ali al-Khalaf, 52, said.

“So much so that some people fled to other nearby villages. They [Israeli troops] entered the villages of Maariya, Aabdyn and Jamlah.”

Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Israeli forces had advanced further into the western outskirts of al-Rafid village in Syria’s southern Quneitra province, marking a significant escalation near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Since the collapse of Assad’s government earlier this month, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on various Syrian facilities.
The occupying Tel Aviv regime, in a move widely condemned internationally, also sent troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights and beyond, alleging it was a defensive and temporary measure.