In the border villages of the Yarmouk Basin in the western countryside of Daraa, a demonstration was held in front of the Jazeera area recently occupied by Israel, demanding the withdrawal of the occupying forces from it.
A reporter from Enab Baladi in Daraa reported that dozens of protesters headed today, Friday, December 20, towards the occupied Jazeera area.
The occupying forces opened fire at the demonstrators, resulting in one injury, who was transferred to a hospital.
On December 10, an Israeli force advanced and occupied the plateau of the Jazeera area, which overlooks the Ar-Raqqa Valley on one side and the Yarmouk Valley on the other side. It also overlooks the border villages from the Syrian side and reveals the Jordanian borders and the geography of the occupied Syrian Golan.
The Israeli forces have made the Jazeera area a military point, as they have asked local dignitaries to come to negotiate several Israeli demands, according to one of the local leaders, who preferred to remain unnamed for security concerns.
Hani al-Ghazi, one of the local leaders in the area occupied by Israel, told Enab Baladi that the occupation’s demands focused on disarming the weapons spread in the region and handing them over to an official authority inside Syria, abolishing military clothing, and registering the names of farmers in the Yarmouk Valley area.
The Israeli occupation also demanded the registration of names of influential figures in the region to negotiate with them on other demands.
Al-Ghazi added that the tone of the Israeli forces was not devoid of threats. An Israeli officer in the Jazeera area told a delegation from the town of Koya, “Count your homes, and we will bring you tents in numbers equal to them if you do not fulfill Israel’s demands.”
Israeli forces also entered the town of Jamla in western Daraa, where they burned a military vehicle and searched the residents of the border town who were in the streets.
The Daraa 24 local news website published a video recording of civilian protests in the western countryside of Daraa, where they rejected the incursion of Israeli forces into their lands.
Enab Baladi contacted the director of Political Affairs Administration office in Daraa, Mashhour al-Masalma, for clarifications regarding the events, but did not receive a response at the time of preparing this news report.
Since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria on December 8, Israel has rushed to make changes to the control map in the border villages of the occupied Syrian Golan.
Israeli forces have taken control of the summit of Mount Hermon and some areas of Quneitra, and occupied the Jazeera area, which is a high plateau overlooking wide areas in Daraa, reaching into Jordan.
The situation has not only involved military expansion but also included threats to the residents of the border villages, as well as storming and searching homes.
Enab Baladi previously documented the Israeli army’s demands for local dignitaries from the border towns to meet with Israeli officers at the military base in the Jazeera area, and they threatened via loudspeakers several times to storm the towns of Ma’riya, Koya, Beit Ara, Jamla, and Abidin if their residents did not comply with Israel’s demands.