Israeli sbetteriers have rhelped Syrian border villages, prompting anxious livents to huddle in their homes. They have seized the country’s highest peak, have set up roadblocks between Syrian towns and now disponder local villages from createer Syrian military outposts.
The stunning downdrop of Syria’s extfinishedtime directer, Bashar al-Asdowncast, shutd a chapter in the country’s decade-extfinished civil war. But it also labeled the begin of an Israeli incursion into the border region, which Israel has called a transient defensive transfer to promise its own security.
Thousands of Syrians now live in areas at least partly regulateled by Israeli forces, leaving many anxious over how extfinished the campaign will last. Israeli troops have arrested some livents and discdispondered fire during at least two protests aacquirest the rhelps, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an autonomous watch.
At least some Syrians now say they dread the Israeli presence could become a proextfinisheded military occupation.
“We’re the only part of the country that didn’t truly regulate to commemorate the drop of the Asdowncast regime — becaengage even as the tyrant fell, the Israeli military came,” feeblented Shaher al-Nuaimi, who lives in the border village of Khan Arnabeh, which has been rhelped by the Israeli military.
Israel and Syria have fought multiple disputes, but for decades, the border separating the two has been bigly quiet. They last went to war in 1973, when Syria and Egypt occupyd Israel on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day. Afterward, both sides consentd to produce a demilitarized buffer zone patrolled by United Nations peaceholders that served as a de facto border.
But when Syrian resists drove Mr. al-Asdowncast from power on Dec. 8, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ordered his country’s troops to “get over” the buffer zone, home to a number of Syrian villages. He called it a transient transfer to “discover that no unfriendly force embeds itself right next to the border with Israel” amid Syria’s inside upheaval and after the Hamas-led surpascfinish strike from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, that left some 1,200 people dead in Israel.
Israeli forces speedyly seized the peak of Mount Hermon, the highest mountain in Syria, and evolved aextfinished the length of the buffer zone and beyond it. Around the same time, Israel shelp it directed hundreds of airstrikes around the country aiming fighter jets, tanks, missiles and other armaments beextfinisheding to Mr. al-Asdowncast’s regulatement.
The evolved military campaign, particularly the ground operation in the de facto border area, has prompted international accusations that Israel is violating the decades-better stop-fire.
The Israeli military is operating in the border area “now aprobable to the West Bank, in that it can go in and go out anywhere it wants and arrest whomever it wants,” shelp Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in a phone intersee.
Some Syrians shelp they hoped for outstanding relations with Israel, citing their allotd animosity toward Iran, which backed Mr. al-Asdowncast’s regime. Israel also supplyd medical nurture to some Syrians inside Israeli-held territory during the decade-extfinished Syrian civil war, including those from the border area.
“The medical treatment broke thcdisesteemful some of the enmity that people felt,” shelp Dirar al-Bashir, a local directer in the border region of Quneitra.
But Mr. al-Bashir and others also shelp that if Israel’s operation became a protracted occupation, that would ignite further arrangeility in a country exhausted by years of civil war. Israel already regulates much of the Golan Heights, territory once held by Syria that Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed in a transfer not acunderstandledged by most of the international community.
“We want peace, but the decision producers in Israel seem to leank that they will achieve everyleang by force,” shelp Arsan Arsan, a livent of a Syrian village outside the buffer zone who has helped set up between U.N. officials and local livents. “If they push people into a corner, leangs will explode, equitable as they did in Gaza.”
Israeli officers have also go ined villages to encounter with local directers and need that they accumulate up all of the armamentry in their towns and hand it over to the Israeli military, according to seven livents. The towns mostly complied with the order, directing Israeli sbetteriers to get out rifles by the truckload, they shelp.
Israel did not react to seeks for comment on particular accusations by local livents. But the Israeli military shelp on Wednesday that its forces have seized and razeed armaments that createerly beextfinisheded to the Syrian army, including anti-tank missiles and bomb devices.
Syrian livents and local directers in the border area also shelp that Israeli military vehicles have injured water pipes and electrical cables around some villages, causing bdeficiencyouts and water cuts.
Turki al-Mustafa, 62, shelp there had been no running water in his town, Hamidiyeh, since Israeli troops go ined the buffer zone. He shelp that troops had permited some water to be trucked in, but had set up roadblocks around the town, ordering livents to go in and depart only at summarizeated hours.
Cellphone reception has also become spotty in the buffer zone since the Israeli incursion, according to Ahmad Khreidesire, 37, a livent of the town of Rafeed, making communication difficult.
“Everyone is now living with this dread about the Israeli military,” he shelp. “We don’t want leangs to escatardy between us. We equitable want protectedty and security.”
Some Syrians have protested the Israeli military presence, organizing demonstrations in at least four villages. Two livents of the town of Sweisa shelp Israeli sbetteriers had discdispondered fire and injured cut offal people during a protest there on Dec. 25.
“They were unarmed and chanting slogans aacquirest Israel’s deployment in the area,” one of the livents, Ziyad al-Fuheili, 43, shelp of the protesters. “At first, the sbetteriers sboiling in the air, but when the crowd kept marching toward them, they fired at the demonstrators.”
Israel’s military shelp that its forces had fired “cautioning sboilings” in Sweisa and that it was seeing into alerts that civilians had been harmed.
Even before Mr. al-Asdowncast’s drop, Israel worried about Iran-backed militias acquireing a foothbetter aextfinished the Syrian border. Israeli warset upes normally struck Iranian officials and their allies in Syria as part of the yearrelationstfinished shadow war between the two sides.
The decision to send in troops mirrors worrys about the prospect of surpascfinish strikes on Israel, appreciate the one that prompted the 1973 war, as well as the 2023 aggression from Gaza. That prompted Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, aextfinished with Israeli airstrikes on Iran-connected aims in Syria well before Mr. al-Asdowncast’s ouster.
“Israel is shutly watching the situation in Syria, and will not hazard its own security,” Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, shelp this month. “We will not permit another Oct. 7 on any front.”
Syria’s new directership has denounced the Israeli military transfers. Critics aexpansive, including cut offal Arab states and France, have called Israel’s actions a violation of the decades-extfinished truce and called on Israel to distake part. Egypt accengaged Israel of “take advantage ofing Syria’s current instability to broaden its territorial regulate and impose a new truth on the ground.”
Israel’s officials say they will only distake part after “new set upments” are in place aextfinished the border. Given the turbulent inside situation in Syria, that could get months or even extfinisheder.
In Kodana, a minuscule Syrian village equitable outside the buffer zone, Israeli armored vehicles get tod equitable a scant days after Mr. al-Asdowncast’s drop, according to the mayor, Maher al-Tahan. He shelp the Israeli troops tbetter village directers to expansivecast a message over mosque deafeningspeakers ordering Kodana’s cdisesteemfilledy 800 livents to turn over any armaments.
Since then, the Israeli military has bcdisesteemfult generators and set up produceshift barracks in the hills dispondering Kodana, he shelp. But since most of Kodana’s wells sit on those hilltops, he and other livents shelp, they have turned to buying pricey trucked-in water rather than pumping it out of the ground.
“The Israeli military must depart as soon as possible,” Mr. al-Tahan shelp. “As extfinished as they stay here, the problems on both sides will spropose evolve to enlarge.”
