The Syrians on the border with Israel, faced with the advance of their troops: “We are not going to leave our homes”

The inhabitants of Khan Arnaba know that at any time Israeli tanks can enter this Syrian town located next to the separation zone between their country and Israel. After the fall of Bashar Al Assad’s regime on December 8, Israeli troops took advantage of the withdrawal of Syrian troops from their side of the border to expand their presence beyond the Golan Heights (annexed by Israel).

The Hebrew army has not only penetrated the demilitarized zone – according to an agreement between the two countries dating back to 1974 – but has occupied several Syrian towns located on this strip of land that had remained in tense peace since the 1970s.

“Jan Arnaba’s turn has not yet come, they are advancing little by little, but there is a lot of concern,” Hassan Al Jubbi, a resident of the town located in the province of Quneitra, south of Damascus and at the foot of of Mount Hermon, also highly coveted for its strategic position at more than 2,000 meters above sea level between Syria, Lebanon and the territory occupied by Israel. His troops also conquered a Syrian observation post at the top of the mountain, when the regime’s soldiers abandoned it and fled due to the collapse of their ranks and the regime, due to the advance of the insurgents from the north of the country towards the capital.

“We are not going to leave our homes, even if they enter Jan Arnaba,” says Al Jubbi, in the garden of his home, surrounded by the olive trees that he himself cultivates and from where you can see Mount Hermon. “We cannot leave our houses, our lands and our livestock, what are we going to live on?” adds the 50-year-old man, father of five children, who receives a meager salary as a local civil servant.

The new Syria, a country without an army

Al Jubbi understands Israel’s motives for entering and occupying more Syrian territory – that is, creating a ‘containment zone’ along its border – in these moments of uncertainty after the fall of the Al Assad regime and the seizure of power by Islamists in Damascus. But this Syrian with a deep and honest outlook says that the inhabitants of the area are not going to accept the Israeli presence in the long term: “We don’t have an army yet, but we are going to create a popular resistance against Israel,” he says.

It refers to the new Syrian authorities, which do not yet have regular armed forces, although at their service are the fighters of the Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) group, which led the offensive against the regime between the end of November and the beginning of last December, until conquering the capital, where the group heads the interim government and its leader, Ahmad Al Sharaa, has become the new strongman of Syria.

“People believe that Israel can reach Damascus,” says Al Jubbi, admitting that the current Syrian government is weak and cannot stand up to Israel. From the interim Executive, they have not made threatening statements regarding Israel and even the Foreign Minister, Asaad Al Shabani, has shown himself open to negotiating in the future with the Jewish State.

For now, in Khan Arnaba, the local authorities appointed by the new leadership in Damascus have other priorities. The newly appointed mayor, Mohamed Sayed, explains to elDiario.es that they are registering the residents and displaced people who are in the town (the largest in the province of Quneitra) to create a census and begin to distribute aid to those who need it. .

“Almost everyone is going to need support because the majority lives below the poverty line, before the population did not receive anything from the Government” of Al Assad, he explains. It details that, among other things, there was a lack of seeds or tools for agriculture, at the same time that a good part of the land remained uncultivated throughout the almost 14 years of civil war, from 2011 until now.

According to Sayed, there are displaced people in Khan Arnaba from surrounding villages, including some that Israel has recently entered, such as Al Qahtaniya, Al Hamidiya and Al Rafid. Most of its inhabitants left in December, but have been able to return to their homes recently, despite the fact that Israeli troops are still present and basic services are not working, explains the mayor.

In general, water and electricity supplies are not good in most of Syria, and this is one of the interim government’s many challenges, above and beyond defending the borders or determining its stance vis-à-vis Israel. Foreign relations can wait until there is electricity and running water and enough food to satisfy Syrian citizens.

Aysha Jalil is one of the many people who have come to register to receive help from the new administration. The 65-year-old woman smiles and speaks slowly, and hopes that they will help her, since her husband died, two of her sons are in another part of the country and her three daughters are widows. There is practically no family in Syria that has not lost a loved one.

Jalil comes from the province of Hama, but moved to Quneitra when the revolt against the Al Assad regime began in 2011. He tells this newspaper that he is not afraid of the Israelis: “I was not afraid of them in 1973 and I will not be.” now,” he says, recalling the war of that year, known as the Yom Kippur War, in which Syria participated along with other neighboring Arab countries against Israel – but after which it did not was able to recover the Golan Heights occupied in 1967 by Jewish troops.

“International mediation” between Damascus and Israel

The original inhabitants of this region are used to dealing with Israel, a country with which Syria is still formally at war. Ali Zeitun, 63, holds the position of mujtar and is in charge of the western area of ​​Jan Arnaba. He tells elDiario.es that local authorities cannot do anything about Israel, but that they know that the matter is being dealt with at a higher level. “They have told us that they are resolving the issue through international mediation,” he says, without offering more details.

He and other older men from the town launched an initiative to try to calm things down so that the Israeli troops would not have a pretext to remain present and even continue advancing into Syrian territory. “We formed a committee and called on all young people to hand over their weapons. They gave them to us and Israel asked us to give them to them, but we refused. We waited until the new authorities were installed here and we gave them to them,” he explains, adding: “This is our land and we do not want to hand over the weapons to anyone other than our authorities.”

Zeitun reveals that, at first, the Israelis asked only for the heavy weapons, but the committee feared that they would end up demanding the delivery of all of them. They reached an agreement through some intermediaries for Israel to supervise the delivery of weapons with drones and, in this way, allay their fears regarding border security. “Since the weapons were delivered, nothing has happened,” laments Zeitun, referring to the fact that the troops and tanks continue in their positions on Syrian soil.

“There is concern among the people but, at the same time, they are calm because they perceive that the Government maintains contacts with Israel through international mediation,” he says. Zeitun adds that people are happy since the fall of the regime but, here in Quneitra, the joy is not absolute due to the threat from Israel. “We are all waiting for a new governor to arrive, because Israeli troops are occupying the headquarters of the Quneitra governorate,” he laments.

The man, who receives this newspaper in a small and humble office, considers that it is important that there are Syrian troops deployed on the border and that the Israeli troops return to their previous positions, but it is too early for that to happen. “Israel has assured, through international mediation, that when there is a new government and security [en Siria]he will retire,” he says optimistically.

Less hopeful are residents of towns that have been occupied by Israel in the past month, such as Al Hamidiya. Mohanad, 20, and Ashraf, 25, are two young people from that village, which is currently under siege. They tell elDiario.es that the inhabitants can only go out a few hours a day and come to Jan Arnaba to buy food or run errands, work, study; but they cannot use the main road, where an Israeli tank prevents passage in both directions. They have to go through secondary roads and fields, and they say they will do that when classes at the university start again.

“15 days ago they broke into Al Hamidiya and interrogated us. They told us their presence was temporary, but we are not sure,” says Mohanad. Both students had to leave their homes for a week and, since they returned, they have lived under occupation. “We left for a week in December, at any moment they can kick us out again,” says Ashraf heartbroken. “We went 20 days without water, because they cut off the general supply, near the governorate,” he adds. Mohanad expresses his frustration and helplessness in the face of Israel’s presence: “It is impossible to resist, we have no strength. How can we face the tanks?”