Nestled in the heights of the Golan Plateau, the village of Jubata al-Khashab (near Kuneitra, in the southwest of Syria), had 4,000 inhabitants before the civil war. Located in the buffer zone administered by the United Nations to maintain the ceasefire between Syria and Israel, its population has lived decades of instability according to the clashes between the rebel forces opposed to the regime of Bashar el-Assad, and its Lebanese Hezbollah allies. Now, its inhabitants fear an occupation by Israeli forces, which establish several military bases in the Golan Tampon zone, as evidenced by satellite images analyzed by the Washington Post and the Bbc.
Israel has indeed invaded a series of Syrian villages in the wake of the fall of the Bashar El-Assad regime in December 2024, invoking the need to protect the inhabitants of northern Israel and secure its border, grabbing arms in arms traffic. Its forces thus crossed “the alpha line” (established by the 1974 disengagement agreement, following the war of the Kippur), penetrating the area controlled by the UN forces of the FNUOD and beyond, in Syrian territory . Israel also said he considered the agreement with Syria as zero and not avenue, given the collapse of the Assad regime.
Several fortified bases
“The satellite images examined by the Washington Post Show more than half a dozen structures and vehicles “in a first fortified Israeli base,” with an almost identical construction with five miles to the south “. Both are connected by new dirt roads to the Golan Plateau territory Under Israeli occupation, while “that a clear field zone”, visible a few kilometers to the south, seems to be “the start of a third base”.
The mayor of Jubata Al-Khashab, Mohammed Muraiwid, confirmed to the American daily daily that Israeli troops build a new military outpost on the outskirts of his village. According to the inhabitants, since its entry into Syria, Tsahal has also set up control points, searched homes and drawn from demonstrators who opposed their presence.
Strategic area
Israel’s attempts to exercise its influence in the region are not new. The country annexed the Golan (then under Syrian control) in 1981, despite objections of the international community. The tray is indeed a strategic character for military surveillance, but also for the supply of water, since it feeds the Galileo Sea and the Jordan.
The inhabitants fear that Israel seeks to grab its resources and move villages. In 1986, the Syrian government had for example been forced to build a new regional capital, Madinat al-Baath, one kilometer from the ceasefire line, in order to welcome families expelled during previous conflicts with Israel. In total, nearly 100,000 Syrians have never been able to return to their territory. Ahmed al-Charaa’s new government in power in Syria, which denounced these territorial violations, said it was ready to respect the 1974 agreement.