In Syria’s Golan Heights buffer zone, residents worry Israel is making a land seize

QUNEITRA PROVINCE, GOLAN HEIGHTS, Syria — The Golan Heights is a rocky terrain dotted with olive bushes and grazing cows, and it is enclosed by snow-capped mountains. For a lot of his life, Khaled Ramadan, 50, lived a peaceable life right here, within the small Syrian village of Al-Rawady. However hours after rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, swept into the Syrian capital Damascus in early December, toppling Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Ramadan was uprooted and displaced.

Ramadan mentioned it wasn’t HTS however a unique drive altogether that swept into his village and compelled him and his spouse and two youngsters out.

“The Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled in, and there was gunfire on the homes,” Ramadan says.

Since Assad’s ouster final month, Israel’s navy has taken up a brand new put up inside an internationally patrolled buffer zone between Syria and Israel. That is the place Ramadan’s village is positioned.

Israel says its navy presence within the Golan Heights border highlands is significant for its nationwide safety. Syrian villagers there, like Ramadan, say the Israeli military has destroyed their houses, pressured out residents and broken water mains and different infrastructure. “We went with nothing but these clothes,” says Ramadan.

Israel’s navy did not reply to NPR’s request for remark concerning the village’s takeover.

Israel and Syria have been enemies for many years, combating in conflicts together with the 1967 Six-Day Struggle, when Israel captured components of the Golan Heights and shortly established dozens of settlements thought-about unlawful below worldwide legislation.

In 1973, Syria tried to reclaim the Golan Heights in a battle it waged on Israel with Egypt. It failed, however Israel and Syria agreed to signal an armistice, resulting in a demilitarized buffer zone monitored by United Nations peacekeepers.

This buffer zone was taken over by the Israeli navy hours after HTS swept into Damascus final month. Concurrently, Israeli airstrikes destroyed a number of navy installations, together with fighter jets and weapon caches throughout Syria.

On the identical day, Dec. 8, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the highest of Mount Hermon within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, carrying a physique armor vest, and referred to as the takeover of the buffer zone a “temporary defensive position” till “another suitable arrangement is found.” He didn’t provide a withdrawal date. The United Nations has referred to as on Israel to withdraw.

Nearly every week later, Israel’s authorities accepted a plan to increase settlements within the Golan Heights. Netanyahu mentioned he didn’t need battle with Syria however nonetheless aimed to double the Israeli inhabitants within the occupied space. There are about 20,000 Israeli settlers dwelling within the Golan Heights now.

Some Syrians worry that Israel is making the most of Syria’s fledgling authorities to make a land seize. And plenty of villagers are fearful they’re going to be displaced, very like Ramadan was.

A gathering with the military

The flooring of Mayor Mohamed Emreiwet’s front room within the village of Jebat al-Khashab within the Quneitra province are lined with Center Jap carpets, and a wood-burning range in the midst of the room retains it heat. The partitions are lined with images of males with spectacular mustaches — his grandfather, uncles and a relative who fought French colonialists in Syria a century in the past.

Emreiwet says Israeli troops entered his village on Dec. 9, the day after Assad’s fall, and he received phrase they needed to fulfill with the village elders, together with himself. He and different elders met with two or three officers and a variety of troopers in a forest on the street close to his village.

“They said, ‘We are here to protect ourselves by ourselves,'” Emreiwet instructed NPR. “They said, ‘We don’t trust anyone after the events of Oct. 7.’ “

The Israeli troops had been referring to the Hamas-led assaults on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, wherein nearly 1,200 folks had been killed and a few 250 had been taken hostage.

“They [Israeli troops] told us, ‘You have weapons that we want, and we’re going to come and search your homes,’ ” Emreiwat mentioned.

The mayor instructed the troops that this might disturb his villagers and trigger them nervousness, so to go off the searches, he and different neighborhood members introduced on Fb and by way of phrase of mouth that folks ought to give up their weapons.

“And we gave it to them,” Emreiwet says.

Emreiwet despatched phrase to the interim Syrian authorities about his encounter and says he was instructed negotiations with Israel had been underway to depart the buffer zone quickly.

NPR requested each Syria’s interim authorities and the Israeli overseas ministry for an replace, and neither responded.

“Israeli troops entering our village means displacement,” Emreiwet mentioned. “And no one is prepared to do that.”

Protests and anger

The Israeli navy has mentioned it has been conducting “operational raids” to destroy and confiscate weapons.

This has angered villagers, who worry for his or her security, and led to protests within the Golan Heights areas the place Israeli forces have moved in.

Seventeen-year outdated Abdulrahman Aqqad sits huddled in blankets and a heat coat in a garden chair within the solar outdoors his house within the village of Sweesa.

He mentioned on Dec. 25, a bunch of women and men from his village went to protest a variety of approaching Israeli troops.

“We were chanting, ‘Syria is free, Israel get out,’ when they started shooting,” Aqqad instructed NPR.

Israeli troops fired into the group, he mentioned, capturing him in each legs. Now he’s unable to stroll.

The Israeli navy instructed NPR that troopers “solely fired warning shots in the air” after a crowd they’d instructed to retreat saved approaching them.

Israeli tanks simply down the street

Mohamed Faroukh, 32, factors down his road within the village of al-Baath. About 300 yards away, at an intersection, there is a sand-colored Israeli tank that rolled in a number of days earlier.

“The tank comes down the street every night, does a loop, then goes back,” he says, pointing on the white tank tracks on the bottom.

Faroukh says he received into an argument with Israeli troopers who instructed him he had gotten too near their checkpoint.

“I have a wife, a daughter, a mother, who I am afraid for,” he instructed NPR. He mentioned his daughter has nightmares of the tank rolling into the village.

He says he must make some powerful selections if the Israelis received any nearer or ended up occupying his village.

“There’s no way I’d live under Israeli occupation,” Faroukh says. “I’ll pick myself up and go.”