On the morning of Tuesday, 25 March 2025, at least seven civilians were killed, including two men and a woman, and dozens were injured, including women, in alleged Israeli ground operation (incursion) followed by airstrikes and/or artillery shelling and/or drone strikes on the Koya al-Balad area of the Koya village in the Yarmouk Valley, western Daraa countryside, Syria. Four young men, members of the militant group Islamic Resistance Front in Syria, were also reportedly killed during the incursion of the Israeli forces into the village, having been besieged and hit with a drone.

According to local sources on news and social media, as well as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and the Syrian Civil Defense (also known as “White Helmets”), an Israeli military patrol attempted to enter the village of Koya in the Yarmouk Valley area in Daraa Governorate on Tuesday morning, and clashed with local young men and militants, who, according to a Facebook page Hawran is the land of my people confronted the patrol “with rifles and light weapons”, attempting to refuse them entry and to push them out, forcing the patrol to withdraw. SOHR stated that seven people had been killed in this clash, along with others wounded.

Following this, the village reportedly came under heavy artillery shelling, which, according to SOHR, included attacks from Israeli tanks positioned in the valley, as well as from drones, with reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters hovering above. Twitter/X user @Abdulrahmanpho posted images of the Israeli military’s “al-Jazeera military barracks” near the village, alleging that the shelling originated from there. Facebook user Hassan al-Iraqi posted that two civilians had been killed along with “a number” of injuries amid continued shelling by Israeli tanks.

Al-Hadath news shared a video of what seems to be Israeli military heavy vehicles positioning themselves around the village, and stated that five civilians, including a woman, had been killed and others had been injured in tank shelling.

Daraa 24 News reported that a young man, Jawdat Hussein Suleiman, had died from his wounds after being hit by “shrapnel from a shell that exploded near him in Koya al-Balad (al-Tahta) on the border with the….Golan Heights”, which “brings the number of documented casualties to five.” They clarified that the village of Koya was divided into two areas, and that it was the al-Balad area that was facing shelling, clashes and displacement, sharing an image of rubble and damaged structures.

The White Helmets added that “according to hospitals and residents’ testimonies, the shelling led to the killing of 5 young men from the village and the wounding of 6 others, including women.”

Facebook user Barlin later posted that the heavy shelling which followed the incursion had led to the deaths of seven, and “injuries whose numbers have not yet been determined”, with Twitter/X user @SNP508769855003 saying that the number of those killed had “risen to more than seven”, with “a large number of injuries.” Barlin noted that the village “continues to be subjected to heavy artillery and tank shelling, amidst the circling of warplanes and reconnaissance flights, and the movement of heavy vehicles on the Israeli side”, with Daraa 24 reporting that local residents were calling for help and the “urgent deployment of doctors and nurses to the area to accommodate the large number of wounded, providing first aid before transporting them to hospitals in the surrounding areas.”

The militant group Islamic Resistance Front in Syria put out a statement announcing that out of seven people involved in the initial clash that were killed in the later shelling, four were militants affiliated with them – Louay Reda Aqla, Ayham Hamdan, Amin Salem Mufleh, and Ali Hanis. The Syrian Network in America posted a video showing an area with debris and discarded magazines indicating militant activity, with the caption “the location where four fighters from the village of Koya in the Daraa countryside” were killed by a drone, following their besiegement” of Israeli forces. The video featured remnants of munition and also a shoe of one of the victims. A voice in the video said, “we were defending our lands.. our country.”

The Facebook page Daraa Airport Diaries and Twitter/X user @omar_alharir posted some of the names of those killed, including the four militants, Jawdat Hussein, and also listed Muhammad Qasim Mohsen as among the “young heroes” who “confronted” Israeli forces, forcing them to withdraw. Among the images posted by them was one of the young men’s lifeless corpses surrounded by fellow villagers. Other images showed some of the young men who had been killed.

As the post did not indicate that Jawdat Hussein and Muhammad Qasim Mohsen were members of the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria, Airwars considers them contested civilians until more information comes to light.

Twitter/X user @Ahmad_1alshble shared a video of villagers crowded and attempting to carry the wounded to a vehicle for transport, and stated that there had been “a massacre” from the bombing, with the death of “7 civilians, dozens of injuries, and the displacement of the village.”

The White Helmets and SOHR noted that amid this was a large displacement of residents of the village and neighboring villages, who feared the violence and shelling. The White Helmets posted images of their emergency teams evacuating the families from the village in vans. Horan Free Media shared a video of convoys of a large number of emergency vehicles and villagers attempting to flee the region with the wounded “as a result of Israeli bombardment of the village, along with footage of little children displaced by the shelling.

Daraa 24 posted a video of a village elder, detailing the incident that happened, and stated that they “have not received any leaflets calling on us to evacuate, and we will not evacuate our area. This is our land; we either live or die on it”, calling on authorities and international bodies to “put an end to Israeli violations [of international law].” A man also said that on the 25th day of Ramadan, Israel entered the al-Yarmouk valley area and stormed the farmers: “Our sons are farmers and have light weapons. Soldiers clashed with our sons, which led to the injury of two of them, then they died in the hospital. Then, the people of the area came, and they were targeted by shells, leading to the killing of four of them. The total death toll was six, and women and children were injured. This Israeli raid prompted civilians to flee the area.”

Twitter/X user @NN123paljeru shared disturbing, graphic footage of the charred, mutilated remains of what appears to be a young man or possibly a teenager, killed in the shelling, and stated, “Homes and farms are being bombed, along with the children, women, and elderly inside…..Whoever thinks the world will take action is delusional.” Zakaria Abdel Kafi mourned the death of fellow Syrians in the incident, calling for accountability for violations of international law, and lamented, “Syrian people are being slaughtered in complete silence!”

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.

The incident occurred in the morning.