ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - At least six Syrian state soldiers were killed on Tuesday as a result of an Israeli drone attack in the Damascus countryside, Syrian state media reported.

The Israeli military have in recent days launched several incursions in the countryside of Damascus and Quneitra, with Syrian state media laiming that at least 60 soldiers advanced into southwestern Damascus.

According to state media, Israeli drones targeted areas near the city of al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least six members of the Syrian Arab Army.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday released a statement expressing its “strong condemnation and denunciation of the attack,” labeling the strike “a grave violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations,” and claiming it undermines the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The ministry called on the international community and the UN Security council to “assume its legal and moral responsibilities in putting an end to these repeated attacks,” urging them to compel Israeli authorities to “cease their ongoing violations against Syria.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz in December ordered the Israeli forces to complete the takeover of the 1974 buffer zone in the Golan Heights, separating the two states.

The buffer zone was established by the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between the two countries, which was signed following a battle to establish a ceasefire and limit military mobilization on both sides. Israel claims that, with the fall of the Assad regime, the agreement is considered void until the restoration of order in Syria.

Israel has repeatedly launched airstrikes against Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, nominally to destroy weapons caches and protect the minority Druze community that has been the target of sectarian massacres at the hands of the new Syrian security forces.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani met with Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer in Paris on August 20 to request the Israeli government to cease its interference in Syrian affairs, as well as the military incursions, according to a statement from the ministry.

In April, head of UN Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix accused Israel of violating the 1974 agreement, calling for “ending all unauthorized presence in the areas of separation and limitation.”

Reporting by Hevi Karam

Updated at 4:00pm with foreign ministry statement