Daraa – Mahjoub al-Hashish

Israel continues to impose a security reality on the villages of the western countryside of Daraa south of Syria, having intensified its raiding operations in the villages of Ma’riya, Jamla, and Abidin, and has besieged some homes under the pretext of searching for weapons.

As a result of ongoing provocations, unknown attackers fired at the Israeli outpost in the Jazira area on March 11, which is a forward position occupied by Israel after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. This led to shelling on the town of Koya with a mortar shell and gunfire targeting agricultural lands around the town.

On the other hand, young men from the town of Koya prevented an Israeli patrol from entering the town at the beginning of March by erecting a barrier against the forces that wanted to enter.

Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has bombed most military areas in Daraa province, including weapons depots, air defense stations, and the infrastructure of these military sites.

The latest attacks occurred on March 17, when the Syria Civil Defence responded to an Israeli bombing that targeted the Masaken al-Dhahiye neighborhood in the city of Daraa, which is inhabited by civilians and adjacent to Brigade 132, following two Israeli airstrikes targeting a military barrack, leaving casualties among civilians.

The airstrikes resulted in the death of three people and injured 19 others, including four children and a woman, as well as three volunteers from the Syria Civil Defence.

No deterrent force

Residents in the border villages with the occupied Golan Heights fear an advance by Israeli forces and the occupation of some villages, especially after the absence of any deterrent force to prevent them from advancing.

Hassan al-Ghazi, a notable figure from Koya, adjacent to the occupied Golan, stated that residents fear Israel will establish new outposts, similar to when it previously took control of the Jazira point west of Ma’riya.

Al-Ghazi believes that the Syrian government should deploy military forces to reassure the residents of the existence of a deterrent force preventing Israel from advancing.

Meanwhile, Muwafaq al-Hafri, a resident of the area, told Enab Baladi that residents fear a sudden expansion of the Israeli occupation forces, consequently leading to a policy of displacement, especially in light of the economic distress faced by the residents.

He added that the occupation has stripped residents of the joy of victory after the fall of the regime, saying, “We could hardly believe when we would be free from the terror of bombardment and arrest” which was practiced by Assad’s regime until Israel restored the same scenario in a similar manner to the ousted regime.

Military researcher at the Jusoor for Studies Center, Rashid Hourani, attributed the failure of the Syrian government to deploy its forces on the border with the occupied Golan to two reasons. The first is that Syria has just emerged from war, as a war-weary state prioritizing the economic aspect to improve the living reality of residents.

The second reason lies in Syria’s desire to return to the disengagement agreement of 1974, according to Hourani.

Hourani also mentioned to Enab Baladi that Israel seeks to be the strongest military state in the Middle East, with the other states fragmented and weak.

Economic siege

After Israel’s control over the Jazira area, farmers were prevented from accessing their lands, which deprived them of agriculture and deepened the unemployment situation among residents, most of whom rely on farming.

Ayham al-Hafri, a resident of Ma’riya, noted that Israel required farmers to report to the Israeli military point for permission to move to and from their fields every day, which farmers rejected, abandoning the early crops (also damaged by frost).

The damages were not limited to farmers but also affected beekeepers and livestock breeders.

Israel is currently besieging over 2,500 beehives, preventing their owners from accessing them for nearly four months, despite pleas from beekeepers to UNIFIL forces, which requested a formal letter from the Syrian government to remove the hives.

After the beekeepers obtained the formal letter, Israel prevented UNIFIL forces from reaching the location to mediate for the relocation of the hives.

Control and destruction of capabilities

From the second day after Assad’s fall, an Israeli force advanced and seized control of a hill known as the Jazira, located about 800 meters from the town of Ma’riya, establishing a military base that has become a launch point for conducting raids and monitoring the area.

The Jazira is a strategic location as it separates the Raqqad Valley from the Yarmouk Valley and overlooks the borders of the occupied Golan, as well as the Syrian and Jordanian borders.

Researcher Rashid Hourani stated that the western Daraa countryside is of strategic importance to Israel, as it forms a border strip with the occupied Golan and seeks to establish an area free of weapons, akin to a buffer zone preventing attacks against it. These precautionary measures have been taken following the events of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, 2023.

Hourani noted that the presence of many military units that previously belonged to the former Assad regime raises Israeli concerns that the new administration may rebuild the capabilities of those units and their future impacts on Israel. Therefore, Israel advances towards them to search and control the weapons they possess, along with the presence of strategic water sources in the area, notably the al-Wehda Dam.

Since the moment the Assad regime fell, Israel has worked to destroy the infrastructure of the military bases that were under Assad’s control, as it targeted on the eve of its fall the warehouses of Brigade 32 at the entrance to Daraa city, Brigade 112 in the town of Izra, which is affiliated with the Fifth Division, the warehouses in al-Kamm near the town of Mahja, radar stations east of the town of Naimeh, and a station near the town of Nahta.

Researcher Hourani believes that Israel aims for southern Syria to be disarmed, a notion articulated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech before the Knesset, stating that he considers Syria one of the seven fronts Israel has been battling since October 7, 2023.

According to Hourani, Netanyahu is apprehensive about the new regime in Syria due to the jihadist background of its leader, hence he seeks to secure the Golan with a demilitarized buffer zone.

During his participation in the emergency Arab summit hosted in Cairo on March 5, the transitional Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, called on Arab nations to assume their responsibility in supporting Syria’s fight against Israeli policies and to pressure it to withdraw from southern Syria (referring to the ground incursions executed by Israel in southern Syria following Assad’s fall, which continue to this day), noting Syria’s adherence to the commitment of the 1974 agreement.