A younger man who was shot by the Israeli army throughout a protest in opposition to the Israeli presence rests his leg exterior his house on Jan. 2 in Golan Heights, Syria. For the reason that fall of Bashar al-Assad, the Israel army has taken new positions in Golan Heights areas.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
QUNEITRA PROVINCE, GOLAN HEIGHTS, Syria — The Golan Heights is a rocky terrain dotted with olive timber 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 stated it wasn’t HTS however a special pressure 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 houses,” Ramadan says.
Since Assad’s ouster final month, Israel’s army has taken up a brand new submit inside an internationally patrolled buffer zone between Syria and Israel. That is the place Ramadan’s village is positioned.
Laundry drying on a fence alongside the border between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
Israel says its army presence within the Golan Heights border highlands is important 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 however these garments,” says Ramadan.
Israel’s army 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.
An Israeli tank unit varieties for a counterattack in opposition to Syria on the Golan Heights, Oct. 8, 1973.
DAVID RUBINGER/GPO/AFP by way of Getty Photos
disguise caption
toggle caption
DAVID RUBINGER/GPO/AFP by way of Getty Photos
In 1973, Syria tried to reclaim the Golan Heights in a conflict 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 army hours after HTS swept into Damascus final month. Concurrently, Israeli airstrikes destroyed a number of army 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, sporting a physique armor vest, and known as the takeover of the buffer zone a “non permanent defensive place” till “one other appropriate association is discovered.” He didn’t provide a withdrawal date. The United Nations has known as on Israel to withdraw.
Nearly every week later, Israel’s authorities authorized a plan to increase settlements within the Golan Heights. Netanyahu stated 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 residing within the Golan Heights now.
Some Syrians concern that Israel is benefiting from Syria’s fledgling authorities to make a land seize. And plenty of villagers are frightened they’re going to be displaced, very like Ramadan was.
Mohamed Emreiwet, a village mayor, says he and different elders had been summoned by an Israeli commander to fulfill on a mud street in a close-by forest and had been informed there could be searches for weapons.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
A gathering with the military
The flooring of Mayor Mohamed Emreiwet’s lounge within the village of Jebat al-Khashab within the Quneitra province are coated with Center Jap carpets, and a wood-burning range in the course of the room retains it heat. The partitions are lined with photographs 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 bought 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 stated, ‘We’re right here to guard ourselves by ourselves,'” Emreiwet informed NPR. “They stated, ‘We do not belief anybody after the occasions of Oct. 7.’ “
The Israeli troops had been referring to the Hamas-led assaults on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, wherein virtually 1,200 individuals had been killed and a few 250 had been taken hostage.
Mohamed Emreiwet’s home is crammed with footage of his relations.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
“They [Israeli troops] informed us, ‘You’ve got weapons that we would like, and we’ll come and search your houses,’ ” Emreiwat stated.
The mayor informed the troops that this may 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 individuals 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 informed negotiations with Israel had been underway to go away the buffer zone quickly.
NPR requested each Syria’s interim authorities and the Israeli international ministry for an replace, and neither responded.
“Israeli troops coming into our village means displacement,” Emreiwet stated. “And nobody is ready to do this.”
Protests and anger
The Israeli army has stated it has been conducting “operational raids” to destroy and confiscate weapons.
This has angered villagers, who concern for his or her security, and led to protests within the Golan Heights areas the place Israeli forces have moved in.
Abdulrahman Aqqad, 17, was at a protest in opposition to the Israeli army when Israeli troopers shot him in each legs, he says.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
Seventeen-year previous Abdulrahman Aqqad sits huddled in blankets and a heat coat in a garden chair within the solar exterior his house within the village of Sweesa.
He stated on Dec. 25, a bunch of women and men from his village went to protest a variety of approaching Israeli troops.
“We had been chanting, ‘Syria is free, Israel get out,’ after they began capturing,” Aqqad informed NPR.
Israeli troops fired into the gang, he stated, capturing him in each legs. Now he’s unable to stroll.
The Israeli army informed NPR that troopers “solely fired warning pictures within the air” after a crowd they’d informed to retreat saved approaching them.
Tracks from an Israeli tank are left on a street in Syria following an Israeli incursion.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
Israeli tanks simply down the street
Mohamed Faroukh, 32, factors down his avenue 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 road each evening, does a loop, then goes again,” he says, pointing on the white tank tracks on the bottom.
Faroukh says he bought into an argument with Israeli troopers who informed him he had gotten too near their checkpoint.
“I’ve a spouse, a daughter, a mom, who I’m afraid for,” he informed NPR. He stated his daughter has nightmares of the tank rolling into the village.
Mohamed Faroukh lives with a brand new Israeli checkpoint simply 300 yards from his home within the village of Al-Baath.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
He says he must make some powerful selections if the Israelis bought any nearer or ended up occupying his village.
“There isn’t any approach I would reside below Israeli occupation,” Faroukh says. “I will decide myself up and go.”
