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As a mid-January morning unfolds in Madinat al-Salam, the provincial capital of the Quneitra Governorate in Syria\u2019s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights region, the streets come alive. A group of men gather outside a shop, sipping sweet tea from plastic cups and chatting eagerly, while women weave through the bustling local market.<\/p>\n
But there is also evidence here of the political upheaval<\/a> that has swept Syria since its longtime authoritarian leader, Bashar al-Assad, was ousted from power in December. A green, white, and black flag with three red stars<\/a>\u2014the Independence Flag, a remnant of the former Syrian Republic that came to symbolize opposition to the Assad regime in the twenty-first century\u2014flutters in the breeze, above Hay\u2019at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) soldiers clad in camouflage and brandishing heavy guns. A long trail of uprooted trees and toppled lampposts leads to a large Israeli military tank<\/a> that blocks the road that leads out of town. But this stark scene is not a relic from the country\u2019s long civil war or the rebels\u2019 recent victory\u2014it is evidence of Israel\u2019s invasion of Syria.<\/p>\n Israel has occupied<\/a> much of the Golan Heights since 1967, when it took the land from Syria in the Six-Day War. Both countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1974, which established<\/a> a demilitarized \u201cbuffer zone\u201d on the Syrian side of the border, monitored by U.N. peacekeeping forces. Although clashes between the Assad regime\u2019s forces and rebel troops had continually spilled into the buffer zone since 2012, after the start of the Syrian civil war, control of the two sides had remained unaltered.<\/p>\n That has now changed. Last December, as the Baathist regime lost control<\/a> of Damascus and al-Assad fled from the rebel offensive, Israeli troops crossed<\/a> the border, entering Syrian territory for the first time<\/a> in half a century. In February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed<\/a> the incursion was prompted by security concerns over the power vacuum in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime, and stated that the Israeli military will remain in Syria indefinitely, demanding the \u201cfull demilitarization\u201d of the country south of Damascus from \u201ctroops of the new Syrian regime.\u201d \u201cWe will not tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria,\u201d he said, justifying Israel\u2019s incursion as a peacekeeping, self-defense mission.<\/p>\n While the United Nations<\/a> and most countries<\/a> in the region have condemned the move, the United States has all but provided its own stamp of approval of the Israeli incursion. The Biden Administration quickly justified<\/a> Israel\u2019s \u201ctemporary action\u201d and Donald Trump\u2019s return to the White House has done little to change this position. During Trump\u2019s first term, the United States became the first, and only, country to recognize<\/a> Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Now, The Jerusalem Post<\/em> revealed<\/a> that the Republican Party\u2019s support for Israeli presence in Syria \u201cremains undaunted,\u201d with the Trump Administration and Republican lawmakers positioned to allow for it to continue for a \u201cvery extended period.\u201d<\/p>\n For the residents of Madinat al-Salam, the looming presence of the newly established military checkpoint, which sits alongside the Israeli tank and is guarded by Israel Defense Forces, has turned life into a daily struggle for survival. \u201cAnyone passing by risks getting shot,\u201d says a young resident called Moutasem. Villagers hurry past the roadblock, barely daring to glance down the road. Children have turned the unexpected visit into a dangerous game, venturing some meters down the road before quickly retreating at the sound of gunfire.<\/p>\n While Madinat al-Salam has, so far, been spared casualties, the surrounding region has seen far more brutal violence. Six people were wounded in Dawaya on December 25, and another was injured in Maariyah five days earlier, when the Israeli military opened fire on demonstrations opposing the invasion. Israeli attacks have claimed the lives of at least one civilian north of Madinat Al-Salam, and residents in nearby villages have been unjustly arrested by the occupying forces.<\/p>\n Quneitra, a Syrian province located on the border of the buffer zone, is no stranger to violence. For years, it was a battleground between the Syrian army and opposition forces, changing hands frequently during the civil war. As much of the country celebrated the fall of the Assad regime in December and the prospect of peace, the region braced itself for a new wave of instability.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Zionist enemy entered under the pretext of confiscating weapons from the area, but it is lying,\u201d says Abd al-Rahman, another young neighbour. Israel\u2019s declared objective of demilitarizing the border region has come at the expense of local residents. The Israeli military has raided<\/a> hundreds of homes, established checkpoints that restrict movement, and confiscated buildings and land. \u201cWe\u2019ve also heard that they\u2019re taking people\u2019s belongings and keeping them for themselves,\u201d al-Rahman adds.<\/p>\n Abd al-Rahman stands on the roof of his home, his gaze cast into the distance. Behind him, barely visible, the white silhouette of Mount Hermon rises above the morning haze. Straddling the border with Lebanon at over 2,800 meters, it was Syria\u2019s highest peak until Israeli forces seized it<\/a> in early December. But al-Rahman is facing away from the mountain, squinting against the bright sun. He shields his eyes with one hand, and with the other, gestures towards a distant body of water.<\/p>\n \u201cMy friends and I went there often. We\u2019d go fishing, eat, and enjoy the beautiful scenery,\u201d he recalls. The water lies within the demilitarized buffer zone, but the Israeli military has now encircled it. \u201cWe can\u2019t go there anymore. The occupying army doesn\u2019t let us,\u201d he laments. As Israel extends its reach across the border, it has seized<\/a> numerous vital water sources. One report estimates<\/a> that Israel now controls up to 40 percent of Syria\u2019s water supply.<\/p>\n Tarek, a man in his sixties who has spent his entire life in Quneitra, says Israeli forces have ravaged much of the region. \u201cJust look at the damage. They\u2019ve taken everything from us,\u201d he says. Abd al-Rahman echoes this sentiment. \u201cI\u2019m upset. The enemy has destroyed our land,\u201d he says. \u201cThis village used to be beautiful\u2014the trees, the birds . . . . Now, it\u2019s completely ruined.\u201d<\/p>\n While the situation in Madinat al-Salam is dire, it is not as desperate as in al-Hamidiya, a mile down the blocked road. Al-Hamidiya sits next to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and is effectively cut off from the rest of the world by the Israeli military tank. An Israeli military checkpoint strictly controls movement in and out of the village for twenty-two hours a day. With the main road blocked, the few residents allowed to leave must navigate a maze of minor roads across the countryside, adding at least twenty minutes to any journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are 430 people trapped in al-Hamidiya,\u201d said one of a group of elders I spoke with in the village\u2019s main square. Draped in red and white keffiyehs<\/em>, they speak between drags of their cigarettes. Since the Israeli siege began in early December, residents say al-Hamidiya has gone weeks without food or water and has lost access to essential services like health care and education. \u201cOur cows and sheep are dying because we have nothing to feed them. At night, if a child falls ill, we can\u2019t take them to the hospital,\u201d one elder says. \u201cWe\u2019re starving and deprived of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many villages in Syria, al-Hamidiya bears the scars of war and economic woes that came to define the final years of the Baathist regime. Only a handful of shops are open, their shelves almost bare and shrouded in darkness due to a power outage. Buildings stand half-finished or in disrepair, their facades pierced with holes from past air strikes by the Syrian military. \u201cAfter fourteen years of suffering under the criminal regime, after we drove Bashar al-Assad out, the Israeli occupation forces entered. We got rid of one occupation just to face another,\u201d says one elder. Another adds, \u201cAll of Syria is celebrating, but we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n Al-Hamidiya was one of the first villages taken by the invading Israeli army. Soldiers raided every home, searching for weapons and compiling an extensive registry of its residents. Some houses were seized entirely. Along some streets, the scuffed tracks of an Israeli military tank are still visible.\u00a0<\/p>\n Villagers say they feel forgotten and abandoned. \u201cWhere is the government? Where is the world? Why doesn\u2019t anyone help us?\u201d one of them explains. \u201cIs it our fault we stayed in our land? We are not leaving, even if we starve to death. We won\u2019t repeat the mistake of 1967.\u201d<\/p>\n