A younger man who was shot by the Israeli navy throughout a protest towards the Israeli presence rests his leg exterior his residence on Jan. 2 in Golan Heights, Syria. For the reason that fall of Bashar al-Assad, the Israel navy 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 mentioned it wasn’t HTS however a special drive altogether that swept into his village and compelled him and his spouse and two kids out.
“The Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled in, and there was gunfire on the properties,” 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 situated.
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 navy 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 properties, pressured out residents and broken water mains and different infrastructure. “We went with nothing however these garments,” says Ramadan.
Israel’s navy did not reply to NPR’s request for remark in regards to the village’s takeover.
Israel and Syria have been enemies for many years, preventing in conflicts together with the 1967 Six-Day Battle, when Israel captured components of the Golan Heights and shortly established dozens of settlements thought-about unlawful underneath worldwide legislation.
An Israeli tank unit varieties for a counterattack towards 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 struggle 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, sporting a physique armor vest, and called the takeover of the buffer zone a “short-term defensive place” till “one other appropriate association is discovered.” He didn’t provide a withdrawal date. The United Nations has called on Israel to withdraw.
Virtually every week later, Israel’s authorities accepted a plan to broaden 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 concern that Israel is profiting from Syria’s fledgling authorities to make a land seize. And plenty of villagers are nervous they’re going to be displaced, very like Ramadan was.
Mohamed Emreiwet, a village mayor, says he and different elders have been summoned by an Israeli commander to satisfy on a dust highway in a close-by forest and have been advised there can 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 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 course of the room retains it heat. The partitions are lined with pictures 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 obtained phrase they wished to satisfy with the village elders, together with himself. He and different elders met with two or three officers and plenty of troopers in a forest on the highway close to his village.
“They mentioned, ‘We’re right here to guard ourselves by ourselves,'” Emreiwet advised NPR. “They mentioned, ‘We do not belief anybody after the occasions of Oct. 7.’ “
The Israeli troops have been referring to the Hamas-led assaults on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, by which virtually 1,200 individuals have been killed and a few 250 have been taken hostage.
Mohamed Emreiwet’s home is crammed with footage of his kin.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
“They [Israeli troops] advised us, ‘You have got weapons that we wish, and we will come and search your properties,’ ” Emreiwat mentioned.
The mayor advised the troops that this may disturb his villagers and trigger them nervousness, so to move 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 advised negotiations with Israel have been underway to go away the buffer zone quickly.
NPR requested each Syria’s interim authorities and the Israeli overseas ministry for an replace, and neither responded.
“Israeli troops getting into our village means displacement,” Emreiwet mentioned. “And nobody is ready to try this.”
Protests and anger
The Israeli navy has mentioned 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 towards the Israeli navy 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 residence within the village of Sweesa.
He mentioned on Dec. 25, a gaggle of women and men from his village went to protest plenty of approaching Israeli troops.
“We have been chanting, ‘Syria is free, Israel get out,’ after they began taking pictures,” Aqqad advised NPR.
Israeli troops fired into the group, he mentioned, taking pictures him in each legs. Now he’s unable to stroll.
The Israeli navy advised NPR that troopers “solely fired warning pictures within the air” after a crowd that they had advised to retreat stored approaching them.
Tracks from an Israeli tank are left on a highway in Syria following an Israeli incursion.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
Israeli tanks simply down the highway
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 just a few 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 obtained into an argument with Israeli troopers who advised him he had gotten too near their checkpoint.
“I’ve a spouse, a daughter, a mom, who I’m afraid for,” he advised NPR. He mentioned 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 robust choices if the Israelis obtained any nearer or ended up occupying his village.
“There is not any approach I would reside underneath Israeli occupation,” Faroukh says. “I will choose myself up and go.”
