Fear and uncertainty in the Golan Heights as Israeli troops push into Syria

On the outskirts of the Druze village of Majdal Shams, located in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a gate in the fence leads to the supposedly demilitarized buffer zone on the Syrian side. It is known as “Screaming Hill,” the place where Druze who live here have long gathered to shout messages, sometimes even marriage proposals, to their relatives and friends on the other side.

On Wednesday, three days after Israeli troops took control of the area as Syrian rebels seized power in Damascus, there were no relatives waiting to receive messages. Instead, jeeps and tanks continued to stream through the gate, joining the long lines of Israeli soldiers operating as far as the eye could see.

On the rocky slope a kilometer away, next to a house in a grove of trees, Israeli flags could be seen flying. Nearby a woman, the only civilian in sight, was collecting firewood. Farther still, at the top of the ridge, were tanks and a road crew busy widening a dirt track and hardening its surface.

Israel, which has sparked international protest over the incursion, defends itself by arguing that the fall of Bashar Al Assad’s regime has “failed” the withdrawal agreement signed with Syria in 1974. The movement of troops has been accompanied by a broad offensive Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) air strike against hundreds of military targets throughout Syria.

On Wednesday there was no sign of a decrease in the movement of troops and armor. On the contrary, there were more armored vehicles and excavators moving along the main roads towards the border.

The fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad has awakened complex and contradictory emotions on this high, rocky Golan plateau, creating a new and surprising reality. Israeli tanks and troops are back on the move after more than a year of war with Hezbollah in Lebanon during which deadly rockets have rained down on villages. On this occasion, the Israeli soldiers are not going north but east, entering Syrian territory.

The incursion has stoked concern among the Druze, an Arabic-speaking ethnic-religious minority, about the consequences Syria’s Islamist revolution could have for them. In the Golan Heights, the Druze make up about half of the 55,000 inhabitants. For the most part they identify as Syrians (with Al Assad sympathizers among them) who reject the Israeli citizenship offered by Tel Aviv since it unilaterally annexed the area in 1981.

In towns like Majdal Shams some Druze took to the streets this weekend to celebrate the fall of Al Assad by flying Syrian flags. But community security squads, demobilized for only a few days, have quickly become active again. “I’m not sure how long the Israelis will stay,” says Shehady Nasrallah, a 57-year-old agronomist who lives in Majdal Shams and has a sister living in Damascus thanks to the agreement that allowed Druze from the area to cross the border. study, and get married in Syria. “Months, maybe years. Nobody knows. “They want to secure the high points,” he added.

“They had Al Assad wherever they wanted, but now the intention is to keep the borders calm with force,” explains Nasrallah. “Last night I was watching on television all the arsenal that Israel is destroying in Syria; the maximum range of the mentioned weapons was 50 kilometers, which is not important from a military point of view; Israel’s goal is to show that it is strong and that it controls everything.”

Nasrallah explains the complexity of the feelings that the Druze harbor towards Al Assad. “All the families here have relatives,” he says. “People here feared for their relatives in Syria if they publicly took a stand against Assad.”

For the Jewish residents of the Golan Heights, the weekend caused another feeling: concern for their own safety after the victory of the Islamist militias in Damascus. A fear inevitably underpinned by the disastrous memory of the lethal and surprise Hamas incursion against Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel took over the Golan Heights in 1967 and in 1981 announced its annexation unilaterally. Although the Trump Administration admitted it in 2019, most countries do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territory.

The actions of the Israeli army have increased the instability generated by the rebels’ victory in Damascus, worsening the sense of danger. Visiting a hill in the Golan Heights on Sunday, before the start of the trial he faces on a corruption charge, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that because Syrian troops had abandoned their positions, the passage of Israel to the buffer zone was needed as a “temporary defensive position.”

Suspicions about Israel’s real intentions

The importance of the Golan, and the buffer zone, lies in a unique geographical location that links it to four countries: Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. Another question is whether the concern that Israel claims to have for its security is the main justification or whether it is behind a larger objective. “I think the main reason is to make sure that the people up there don’t leave like they left in the north because of the Hezbollah threat from Lebanon,” says HA Hellyer, a Middle East expert at the Royal United Services think tank. Institute. “It is not because of fear of rockets, but of incursions by armed groups,” he adds.

According to Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Chatham House think tank, this is an opportunistic move by Israel to achieve broader objectives. “Israel is seizing the moment to protect its security interests and advance the broader goal of creating buffer zones along all its borders,” he says. “Amid the uncertainty generated by the political process and possible scenarios in Syria, Israel is also fulfilling the mandate of the international community by eliminating the military capacity that Syrian groups would have at their disposal if things get out of control,” duck.

Near the Quneitra crossing, a group of Israeli soldiers at a viewing point on Wednesday studied a map of the buffer zone stretching out in front of them. “Until the Arab Spring of 2011, this area was always quiet, then the rebel forces came,” said one of the officers. “The objective is to secure the area to avoid any danger on our border; But ultimately, I think, that can be achieved with technology, drones, and fire control on the ground, rather than boots on the ground.”

As the officer spoke, a middle-aged Israeli woman approached to ask if it was possible to go to Damascus. “We were on vacation in the Golan and we heard on the news that there were Israeli tanks near Damascus [algo que las FDI niegan]. We asked the soldiers at the Majdal Shams gate if we could go and they said no,” said Yemina Asida, a member of the national religious community in central Israel.

“It’s exciting,” he commented, by way of explanation. “We need to be in the buffer zone to keep our communities safe. I think that in the future it could be a negotiating asset.” Then, after reflecting for a moment, he added: “Or our presence here could be a reason to attack us.”

Translation of Francisco de Zárate