The presence of Israeli troops who entered a U.N. buffer zone on the border with Syria following the fall of President Bashar Assad is frustrating the local population.

Sylvain Mercadier, a French journalist detained by the Israeli army in Syria, described being “brutally interrogated” by Israeli soldiers.

Local residents want new government to push out IDF, which it accuses of demolishing homes and orchards; military source says army 'unaware of incidents'

French journalist Sylvain Mercadier and his colleague Syrian lawyer Mohammad Al-Fayyad were detained and mistreated by Israeli occupation forces in Quneitra, Sy

In-depth: Israel took advantage of the Assad regime's collapse to expand its occupation of the Golan Heights, with Syrians in Quneitra wary of what comes next.

The post IDF detains and later releases French journalist in southern Syria appeared first on The Times of Israel.

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Israeli forces entered the area — which lies in a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel — soon after the fall of President Bashar Assad last month in the country's 13-year civil war.

Israeli forces entered the area soon after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad last month in the country’s 13-year civil war

A Syrian mayor told AFP he had meetings with Israeli officers as the military conducted incursions in his village inside a Golan Heights buffer zone, saying they had demanded locals relinquish their weapons.

Residents in Quneitra have expressed fear that Israeli forces will advance further in the area as Syria's new leaders have yet to take action against such.

As Syria emerges from decades of dictatorship, people in the Assad family's ancestral home of Latakia province are both overjoyed and anxious. Assad and his family are Alawite, an offshoot of Shia Islam,