International Reportage

Since the beginning of the war in the Middle East, Syrian authorities have been trying to stay out of the conflict. But in the south of the country, Israeli incursions have increased since the fall of Assad. Last week, the Israeli army also used Syrian soil for the first time to carry out operations in Lebanon. A young shepherd was also killed. In these border villages, residents fear an escalation. They are concerned that Israel, which is currently bombing southern Lebanon, may seek to extend its control to southern Syria.

From our special correspondent in the border areas to the south of Syria, his name was Osama al-Fahd. He was 17 years old and had gone to buy a gas cylinder on Friday, April 3, when an Israeli shell hit his car. The carcass of the vehicle is still lying there, shattered, on the edge of the road. His father says he does not understand why the young shepherd was targeted. “They chose their victim randomly, for no reason. They killed him when he was innocent,” he denounces. His village, Al-Rafid, is located on the edge of the Golan Heights, which the Israeli army has occupied since 1967. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the Israeli army has been advancing its troops methodically inside Syrian territory. At Osama’s place, positions are now on the other side of the garden. “Since Assad’s fall, God knows, we haven’t had a single day of respite. Israel is stealing our lands, and on top of that, they are enjoying it!” alerts the father of the young boy. “Many of us in this village have been displaced from the Golan. I myself have been displaced from the Golan. We will not leave again, we will not leave our lands. But we live in fear. Fear that a war will break out tomorrow or the day after.”

“The entire village has been living under the direct threat of Israeli incursions. Fadi Al-Mutairi, a neighbor, owns 2 hectares of land that he is no longer allowed to access. ‘They have burned all the lands near their positions with glyphosate, supposedly to prevent shepherds from approaching their borders,’ he testifies. Between these new positions, entire villages find themselves isolated. Israeli checkpoints are increasing, hindering residents from moving around. This supplier is now afraid to take his car to go to work. ‘They always choose to position themselves at a point that cannot be bypassed by taking a secondary road. These are temporary, unpredictable roadblocks: we cannot know where and when they will be set up,’ he fears. ‘We come across them suddenly, without being able to anticipate them.'”

“It was at a checkpoint of this kind that Wodi al-Bakri, 21, was arrested by Israeli soldiers a year ago. His father does not know the reason for this arrest, nor the location of his prison. ‘They will take over the entire region, and no one will come back. Israel enters and exits as it pleases, without impunity. They plan to take everything, they intend to annex the entire region, the entire province,’ he laments. In these remote villages, the Syrian army is not deployed. There are only a few United Nations contingents, supposed to maintain peace. For their inhabitants, there is primarily solitude. The example of devastated Gaza, more recently that of bombed South Lebanon. And then there is the recurring question: ‘Who today is able to stop the Israeli state?'”