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Israeli Expansion in Syria Raises Ire 12/15 06:11
BEIRUT (AP) -- Qassim Hamadeh woke to the sounds of gunfire and explosions
in his village of Beit Jin in southwestern Syria last month. Within hours, he
had lost two sons, a daughter-in-law and his 4-year-old and 10-year-old
grandsons. The five were among 13 villagers killed that day by Israeli forces.
Israeli troops had raided the village -- not for the first time -- seeking
to capture, as they said, members of a militant group planning attacks into
Israel. Israel said militants opened fire at the troops, wounding six, and that
troops returned fire and brought in air support.
Hamadeh, like others in Beit Jin, dismissed Israel's claims of militants
operating in the village. The residents said armed villagers confronted Israeli
soldiers they saw as invaders, only to be met with Israeli tank and artillery
fire, followed by a drone strike. The government in Damascus called it a
"massacre."
The raid and similar recent Israeli actions inside Syria have increased
tensions, frustrated locals and also scuttled chances -- despite U.S. pressure
-- of any imminent thaw in relations between the two neighbors.
An expanding Israeli presence
An Israeli-Syrian rapprochement seemed possible last December, after Sunni
Islamist-led rebels overthrew autocratic Syrian President Bashar Assad, a close
ally of Iran, Israel's archenemy.
Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the rebels who took over
the country, said he has no desire for a conflict with Israel. But Israel was
suspicious, mistrusting al-Sharaa because of his militant past and his group's
history of aligning with al-Qaida.
Israeli forces quickly moved to impose a new reality on the ground. They
mobilized into the U.N.-mandated buffer zone in southern Syria next to the
Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and
later annexed -- a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Israeli forces erected checkpoints and military installations, including on
a hilltop that overlooks wide swaths of Syria. They set up landing pads on
strategic Mt. Hermon nearby. Israeli reconnaissance drones frequently fly over
surrounding Syrian towns, with residents often sighting Israeli tanks and
Humvee vehicles patrolling those areas.
Israel has said its presence is temporary to clear out pro-Assad remnants
and militants -- to protect Israel from attacks. But it has given no indication
its forces would leave anytime soon. Talks between the two countries to reach a
security agreement have so far yielded no result.
Ghosts of Lebanon and Gaza
The events in neighboring Lebanon, which shares a border with both Israel
and Syria, and the two-year war in Gaza between Israel and the militant
Palestinian group Hamas have also raised concerns among Syrians that Israel
plans a permanent land grab in southern Syria.
Israeli forces still have a presence in southern Lebanon, over a year since
a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. That war
began a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with
Hezbollah firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with its ally Hamas.
Israel's operations in Lebanon, which included bombardment across the tiny
country and a ground incursion last year, have severely weakened Hezbollah.
Today, Israel still controls five hilltop points in southern Lebanon,
launches near-daily airstrikes against alleged Hezbollah targets and flies
reconnaissance drones over the country, sometimes also carrying out overnight
ground incursions.
In Gaza, where U.S. President Donald Trump's 20-point ceasefire deal has
brought about a truce between Israel and Hamas, similar buffer zones under
Israeli control are planned even after Israel eventually withdraws from the
more than half of the territory it still controls.
At a meeting of regional leaders and international figures earlier this
month in Doha, Qatar, al-Sharaa accused Israel of using imagined threats to
justify aggressive actions.
"All countries support an Israeli withdrawal" from Syria to the lines prior
to Assad's ouster, he said, adding that it was the only way for both Syria and
Israel to "emerge in a state of safety."
Syria's myriad problems
The new leadership in Damascus has had a multitude of challenges since
ousting Assad.
Al-Sharaa's government has been unable to implement a deal with local
Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria, and large areas of southern Sweida
province are now under a de facto administration led by the Druze religious
minority, following sectarian clashes there in mid-July with local Bedouin
clans.
Syrian government forces intervened, effectively siding with the Bedouins.
Hundreds of civilians, mostly Druze, were killed, many by government fighters.
Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most other
Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights.
Israel, which has cast itself as a defender of the Druze, though many of
them in Syria are critical of its intentions, has also made overtures to Kurds
in Syria.
"The Israelis here are pursuing a very dangerous strategy," said Michael
Young, Senior Editor at the Beirut-based Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East
Center.
It contradicts, he added, the positions of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt --
and even the United States -- which are "all in agreement that what has to come
out of this today is a Syrian state that is unified and fairly strong," he
added.
Israel and the US at odds over Syria
In a video released from his office after visiting Israeli troops wounded in
Beit Jin, barely 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the edge of the U.N. buffer zone,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel seeks a "demilitarized
buffer zone from Damascus to the (U.N.) buffer zone," including Mt. Hermon.
"It is also possible to reach an agreement with the Syrians, but we will
stand by our principles in any case," Netanyahu said.
His strategy has proven to be largely unpopular with the international
community, including with Washington, which has backed al-Sharaa's efforts to
consolidate his control across Syria.
Israel's operations in southern Syria have drawn rare public criticism from
Trump, who has taken al-Sharaa, once on Washington's terror list, under his
wing.
"It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with
Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria's evolution
into a prosperous State," Trump said in a post on Truth Social after the Beit
Jin clashes.
Syria is also expected to be on the agenda when Netanyahu visits the U.S.
and meets with Trump later this month.
Experts doubt Israel will withdraw from Syria anytime soon -- and the new
government in Damascus has little leverage or power against Israel's much
stronger military.
"If you set up landing pads, then you are not here for short-term," Issam
al-Reiss, a military adviser with the Syrian research group ETANA, said of
Israeli actions.
Hamadeh, the laborer from Beit Jin, said he can "no longer bear the
situation" after losing five of his family.
Israel, he said, "strikes wherever it wants, it destroys whatever it wants,
and kills whoever it wants, and no one holds it accountable."
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