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The National
08-08-2025
- Politics
- The National
Israel's secret occupation of Syrian towns exposed by demolished neighbourhoods and military might
Tourfa Ali and her husband, Eid, watched helplessly from a relative's house as Israeli tanks destroyed their home in Hamadieh, a town in southern Syria, a few weeks ago. 'We heard the sound of machinery and heavy vehicles in the neighbourhood,' Ms Ali recalled. Soon, word spread that the Israeli army was demolishing homes. 'I was terrified. At dawn, we went out to see – the whole neighbourhood was levelled. Not a single house was standing. That was our home, the harvest of a lifetime. People here have no income to rebuild,' she said. The family is among 15 whose homes were destroyed on June 16 in Quneitra governorate. They were destroyed because they were near a newly established Israeli military base in a buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights, according to residents and the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a war monitor. 'This is the second time my house has been destroyed. The first time, Bashar Al Assad destroyed it. I rebuilt everything from scratch,' Mr Ali told The National. Hamadieh was part of a rebel‑held pocket that was shelled by government forces during the civil war. 'And now the Israelis came and destroyed it again.' SNHR said the targeted area in Hamadieh is under the control of Syria's transitional government and denounced the demolition of Syrian homes as part of 'a pattern of violations' committed by Israeli authorities in southern Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December, undermining efforts to establish stability. Satellite imagery shows that, in addition to the one in Hamadieh, Israel has built several military bases in southern Syria, both inside and outside the UN buffer zone, an 80km strip of territory separating Syria and Israel since the 1973 Arab–Israeli war. Israeli forces invaded just hours after rebel groups toppled the Assad regime. Theatrics of war As millions of Syrians began celebrating the end of the Assad family's rule, residents of Hamadieh and other villages in the Golan Heights – a water‑rich territory overlooking northern Israel – were forced to flee their homes as the Israeli army moved into their towns. Israel said it aimed to establish a 'sterile defence zone' in southern Syria to 'prevent the establishment and organisation of terror in Syria.' In Hamadieh, residents told The National they were forced to flee, amid gunfire, smoke grenades and tanks. Although the new Syrian authorities, led by former Al Qaeda-linked leader Ahmad Al Shara, insist that Syria does not seek conflict with its neighbours, Israel says it does not trust them. Riad Kahwaji, a security analyst, said Israel aims to turn southern Syria into a demilitarised zone to counter Iran‑backed and other militant groups, as part of a more aggressive defence policy since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel in 2023. 'Israel is trying to create a buffer zone in southern Syria free of population,' he explained. After recent talks involving Syria and Israel, Mr Kahwaji said it appears Israel intends to remain in southern Syria for years, until it is confident the new Syrian government can make the area safe. Withdrawal terms, he added, would be set in future normalisation talks that would define final borders. Mr Kahwaji added that the latest Israeli occupation also serves as a 'bargaining chip' in negotiations. 'The general belief is that Israel has seized new Syrian land so that future negotiations would focus solely on it.' This would leave the Golan Heights, annexed by Israel in 1981, off the table and effectively accepted by Damascus as lost. Mr Kahwaji thinks Israel's interventions in Syria, including strikes on Damascus and countless army positions since Mr Al Assad's removal, are driven as much by domestic politics as geopolitics, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's embattled government tying its survival to war. 'It's about waging wars to stay in power,' said Mr Kahwaji, who called the actions 'theatrics' to show that Israel is engaged on several fronts 'despite Damascus not firing a single bullet at Israel'. A new reality Hamadieh residents have lived in fear of Israeli forces for months, with arbitrary arrests, interrogations at a new military base, house raids, and patrols becoming part of their daily lives. 'At any moment, they could break into your house. They check IDs, take a full survey of the household, and record it all,' Mr Ali said. But residents insisted that Hamadieh has not been home to armed groups. 'There is no Hamas or Hezbollah here. Israeli forces have raided all the houses and occupied the area; they would have known by now,' Mr Ali added. Israeli forces have, in effect, gained total control over the area. They have blocked the main road to Hamadieh, forcing residents to take a long detour to reach the town. Local officials in Hamadieh must request permission to carry out any repairs. Even to bury their dead, residents must ask Israel for permission to visit the cemetery. Constant violence has left locals terrified to step outside. From her in-laws' rooftop, Ms Ali secretly looked at where her house once stood. She is afraid to stay too long in the open, worried that a soldier might catch her looking at what remains of her property. Israeli forces have deployed outside the agreed buffer zone, marking a new boundary with a recently built earth barrier. The Israeli military has publicly acknowledged that it has deployed in 'a few additional points' beyond the buffer zone. Lebanese security officials also claimed Israeli forces were quietly and gradually moving through areas of Syria near the Lebanese border. They reported that several Israeli troops have been recently deployed in Qatana, a strategic location about 30 kilometres north of the occupied Golan Heights, 20km south-west of Damascus and only 10km from Lebanon. In Hamadieh, this has caused complete disruption of daily life. Israeli forces are occupying about four to six square kilometres of farmland outside the agreed buffer zone, according to Mr Ali. 'We can't access it, it's completely gone, no livestock, no farming, no land, nothing at all. They took all the land, they took the houses,' he said. Residents said they never had issues with the Israelis under the Assad regime. Experts say that, rhetoric aside, Mr Al Assad was seen as a 'convenient neighbour' for Israel, who would not allow Iran -backed groups or missile fire from Syria into Israel. 'Israel recognised the benefit of having Assad, a member of Syria's minority, in control,' Mr Kahwaji said. Israel fears a strong Sunni-led government backed by Turkey, he added. 'This is why Israel is positioning itself as the protector of minorities, like the Druze and Kurds'. 'They want us to flee' Khali Ali Hussein and his wife, Noura Sharafieh, recalled with horror being forced to flee their home on December 8, leaving with nothing, 'not even proper clothes.' 'The news was that the regime had fallen. We didn't rejoice, we couldn't celebrate. People thought the regime's fall would mark a new phase, a liberation. But for us, it was the start of a new problem,' she said. She added that her son developed psychological trauma from the fear, and has not been able to speak properly since. Israel destroyed their house, which was close to the new military base, and looted others, the couple recounted. The family has since been living in an abandoned military facility from the Assad regime. The municipality allowed them to repair the building, and they have been staying until 'a solution is found'. Official Salim Al Bakhit told The National that the government had surveyed the destruction and would 'help as much as we can with the available resources'. 'The situation is being followed up, and we will do everything possible to assist those affected,' he said. But cash-strapped Syria, which faces a mammoth reconstruction bill, has scarce resources. Hamadieh residents have been stuck in limbo for months, too poor to go elsewhere. For Mr Hussein, Syrians in the south are paying the price of Israeli expansionism. 'National security is an excuse; these are tactics. They are doing this to force us to migrate, so they can take the area,' he said.
The National
17-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Bodies in the streets: Druze caught in Sweida violence reveal horrific days of bloodshed
Ramzi has witnessed horrors throughout his career as a doctor during Syria's 13-year civil war. But few compare, he said, to the scenes he witnessed this week at the main hospital in Sweida, a Druze -majority town where bloody sectarian violence raged for days. 'I saw at least 200 bodies at the hospital, many of them civilians,' he recalled. Videos purportedly filmed inside the hospital show bloodstained corridors and rooms strewn with bodies, many soaked in blood and piled on top of each other. Clashes erupted on Sunday in Sweida, in southern Syria, before a retaliatory exchange between armed Bedouin and Druze factions, two long-standing rivals, quickly escalated into widespread violence as Syrian troops were sent to the area to quell the unrest. Druze factions, which deeply distrust the government, mobilised to repel its forces. In hours, the fighting turned into bloodshed, with many breaches reported against civilians. As videos were posted on social media, reports emerged of government-affiliated troops abusing and humiliating Druze people, as well as looting and burning their homes. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has said it is 'deeply alarmed' by the violence in Sweida, quoting reports from local residents of 'killings, abductions, burning of properties and looting, as well as an increase in incitement and hate speech online and in person'. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a war monitor, says more than 500 people have been killed amid 'extrajudicial killings, mutual shelling, as well as air strikes carried out by Israeli forces'. Israel joined the fighting by launching dozen of strikes across Syria, claiming to be defending the Druze minority. The fighting lasted for four days until Syrian authorities announced on Wednesday an 'immediate and complete halt ' to their offensive, following a deal with some, but not all, representatives of the Druze community. The reported breaches against civilians come as Syria's new government, led by an Islamist faction once affiliated with Al Qaeda, struggles to assert authority over myriad armed groups, despite calls to bring all factions under the command of the Ministry of Defence. Syria's interim President Ahmad Al Shara said on Thursday that the government was 'keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people'. The National spoke on the phone with six Druze civilians who described four days of intense fear, confined to their homes amid heavy shelling without water and electricity. Their names have been changed to protect their identities. Some recounted seeing neighbours killed after stepping outside; others said they recognised the bodies of loved ones in videos circulating online. Residents said they believed Syria's General Security was involved in the violence against them, but were unable to identify the killers amid the chaos. The National was not able to independently verify which factions or groups were responsible for the reported violations against locals. Interviews were frequently interrupted by the sound of explosions, even hours after the ceasefire was agreed. A hospital under siege Ramzi said he left Sweida Hospital on Tuesday to rest and was unable to return, as all roads were closed amid indiscriminate shelling. 'Authorities should have secured a safe corridor to the hospital so that at least the wounded could be treated,' he said. He added that the hospital remained under siege for days, without medical supplies, electricity, or water. 'Roads to the hospital were cut, water and electricity were shut off, the wounded had no chance of being saved,' he said. According to Ramzi, at least two doctors were killed by snipers, one while attempting to reach the facility, the other in a car alongside her son. He said he later saw the boy's body among the dead inside the hospital. SNHR documented the killing of children, women, medical workers in the violence, as well as fighters from armed Bedouin tribal groups, local factions and members of the security forces. 'I've only seen similar scenes the day ISIS attacked Sweida province,' he said, referring to a surprise attack from members of ISIS in 2018, killing more than 200 people. A minority sect that follows a religion derived from Islam, the Druze are considered heretics by some extremist Sunni militant groups. 'What did they do?' Many Sweida residents were trapped in their homes for days without water or electricity, surrounded by shelling and gunfire. Venturing outside came at the risk of death. Timour, a resident from Abou Hayan Nabwan in the centre of Sweida said his neighbour, a retired engineer, was shot dead by a sniper as he just stepped outside. 'He was trying to get to his village, hoping to escape,' he said. 'I wanted to run out and help him, but it was too dangerous. I saw his body from the window. From what I could see, there was no way he could have survived,' he added. Baha another Sweida resident, said he had no news from his family for hours, as he was sheltering in a calmer part of the city with poor internet connection. Until he saw a video online in which he recognised a cousin with his son, their lifeless bodies lying on the ground in front of their home in the Sawat Blat neighbourhood. 'What did they do?' he lamented. In the video, seen by The National, a man is heard saying, 'This is inside the city of Sweida. Praise be to God. These are your dogs, Hijri. This is what happens to anyone who turns against the state,' he added, as he drove past two bodies in civilian clothes, which Baha said were his relatives. The man is referring to Druze cleric Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, one of the main Druze spiritual leaders, who has openly opposed Syria's new leadership in Damascus. 'Liberation has been achieved through the determination and will of Syria's honourable sons,' the voice continued. Baha said both his cousin and his cousin's son were civilians. The father was in his 50s, the son just 20. The family owned a small poultry business, he said, and had no connection to Sheikh Al Hijri and his armed group. Videos circulating widely on social media appear to show graphic scenes of violence, though The National was unable to independently verify their origin. In one video, masked gunmen are seen shooting at a group of unarmed men seated in a line near a roundabout. The National could verify the location as Tishreen Square in central Sweida but was unable to identify the victims and perpetrators. Another video shows at least 10 bodies lying in pools of blood inside a traditional Druze living room. Several residents told The National the victims were members of a prominent local family, the Radwans. One said he recognised the family's salon. Residents also said that indiscriminate shelling has destroyed civilian houses. Tamara, another Sweida resident, said her parents' house was heavily damaged in a shelling on Wednesday, though her parents were not harmed. Other reported abuses included scenes of humiliation. Fawzi, a taxi driver in his thirties who had been confined to his home amid the gunfire and shelling, heard men chanting outside 'Druze pigs! '. Videos circulating online also showed armed men forcibly shaving the moustaches of Druze men, a symbol of masculinity in their culture. On Thursday morning, as the situation began to calm, Ramzi left for a quieter area in Sweida. He shared a video with The National showing the aftermath of the fighting, charred cars lined the road, and most shopfronts had their glass shattered, the debris scattered across the ground. On Thursday evening, he said the city remained sealed off. For Rahaf al Doughli, a professor of Middle East and North African Studies at Lancaster University, the violence reflect a lack of control by Mr Al Sharaa over the patchwork of factions operating in Syria, despite promises of unification. She said the announcement, after the fall of the Assad regime, of the integration of all armed factions was more of an 'accessory process' than an institutionalised one. 'We saw the first impact of this in the violations that happened along the coast,' she said, referring to a spree of sectarian killings in which hundreds of unarmed Alawites were killed by factions nominally affiliated with the government and by armed civilians, according to war monitors. 'It was a major mistake to launch an attack on Sweida using the same military groups that have yet to undergo proper training or discipline,' she added. 'What comes after Sweida is unlike anything before it. We are approaching a very critical juncture in Syria's future. The prospect of Syria's division is now more real than ever,' she warned.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Reuters counted the dead in the March killings of Syrian Alawites
LATAKIA, Syria -A Reuters investigation pieced together how the March 7-9 massacres of Syrian Alawites along the country's Mediterranean coast unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria's new leaders in Damascus. The investigation found 1,479 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing from 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the Assad government. Reuters spoke with over 200 families of victims during visits to massacre sites and by phone, 40 security officials, fighters and commanders, and government-appointed investigators and mediators. Journalists for the news agency also reviewed messages from a Telegram chat established by a Defense Ministry official to coordinate the government response. Journalists examined dozens of videos, obtained CCTV footage and compiled handwritten lists of victims' names. Reuters counted the dead by gathering local lists of names of victims, many of them handwritten, from community leaders and families of the victims. Villagers also gathered pictures and personal details about the victims. For each list, written in Arabic, Reuters cross-checked the names with activists who are either in the relevant village, run Facebook pages, or in the diaspora and have relatives in the places that came under attack. For each massacre site, Reuters also gathered pictures of victims, and photos and locations of mass graves. On March 11, the U.N. said it had counted 111 deaths but acknowledged it as an undercount. It hasn't updated its death tally since. The most recent count from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, shows 1,334 people killed, including 60 children and 84 women. Of that total, 889 were killed by government forces while 446 were killed by pro-Assad fighters, it said. Of the 446, SNHR said that half were civilians and half were government forces. SNHR did not explain how it confirmed the identity of the perpetrators. Reuters could not confirm the SNHR toll for Alawites killed by Assad loyalists or that for the government forces. On March 17, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another civil society organization, said it had tallied 1,557 civilian deaths but did not detail how it arrived at the figure. The group also counted 273 dead among government forces and 259 among Alawite gunmen affiliated with pro-Assad forces. President al-Sharaa has said 200 government forces died. The government has not released a tally of the dead among Alawite civilians.
Straits Times
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
How Reuters counted the dead in the March killings of Syrian Alawites
A man pushes an elderly woman on an airport luggage trolley at Hmeimim Air Base, in Latakia, western Syria, March 20, 2025. Thousands of Alawite families sought refuge there after deadly attacks by pro-government forces targeting their villages. A Reuters investigation found the violence left nearly 1,500 people dead. REUTERS/Stringer To match Special Report SYRIA-SECURITY/COASTAL-KILLINGS LATAKIA, Syria -A Reuters investigation pieced together how the March 7-9 massacres of Syrian Alawites along the country's Mediterranean coast unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria's new leaders in Damascus. The investigation found 1,479 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing from 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the Assad government. Reuters spoke with over 200 families of victims during visits to massacre sites and by phone, 40 security officials, fighters and commanders, and government-appointed investigators and mediators. Journalists for the news agency also reviewed messages from a Telegram chat established by a Defense Ministry official to coordinate the government response. Journalists examined dozens of videos, obtained CCTV footage and compiled handwritten lists of victims' names. Reuters counted the dead by gathering local lists of names of victims, many of them handwritten, from community leaders and families of the victims. Villagers also gathered pictures and personal details about the victims. For each list, written in Arabic, Reuters cross-checked the names with activists who are either in the relevant village, run Facebook pages, or in the diaspora and have relatives in the places that came under attack. For each massacre site, Reuters also gathered pictures of victims, and photos and locations of mass graves. On March 11, the U.N. said it had counted 111 deaths but acknowledged it as an undercount. It hasn't updated its death tally since. The most recent count from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, shows 1,334 people killed, including 60 children and 84 women. Of that total, 889 were killed by government forces while 446 were killed by pro-Assad fighters, it said. Of the 446, SNHR said that half were civilians and half were government forces. SNHR did not explain how it confirmed the identity of the perpetrators. Reuters could not confirm the SNHR toll for Alawites killed by Assad loyalists or that for the government forces. On March 17, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another civil society organization, said it had tallied 1,557 civilian deaths but did not detail how it arrived at the figure. The group also counted 273 dead among government forces and 259 among Alawite gunmen affiliated with pro-Assad forces. President al-Sharaa has said 200 government forces died. The government has not released a tally of the dead among Alawite civilians. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Al Jazeera
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Syria's al-Sharaa extends deadline for investigation into coastal killings
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has extended the deadline for a committee to produce a report into the killings of hundreds of civilians on the country's western coast last month. Hundreds of Alawite civilians were killed in apparent retribution after fighting broke out between government forces and armed groups loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the Alawite religious sect. On March 9, al-Sharaa tasked a fact-finding committee with producing a report within 30 days that would help determine the perpetrators and hold them to account. In a decree published late on Thursday, the Syrian president said the committee had requested more time to complete its work and that he would grant it a non-renewable three-month extension. The sectarian violence prompted fears of a renewed civil war just months after al-Assad was toppled in December by opposition fighters led by al-Sharaa. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in a preliminary report last month that 803 people were extrajudicially killed between March 6 and 10 in attacks that were primarily carried out in the Latakia, Tartous and Hama governorates. At least 39 children and 49 women were among those killed, SNHR said. In a report published on April 3, Amnesty International said its probe into the killings concluded that at least 32 of more than 100 people killed in Baniyas, a coastal town in Tartous governorate, were deliberately targeted on sectarian grounds. Amnesty said witnesses told the rights group that 'armed men asked people if they were Alawite before threatening or killing them and, in some cases, appeared to blame them for violations committed by the former government.' Diana Semaan, a Syria researcher at Amnesty, told the Reuters news agency that the fact-finding committee should be given 'adequate time, access and resources to carry out a thorough investigation'. 'What is crucial is that the work of the fact-finding committee is transparent and includes any new violations against minorities in the coastal area and other parts of Syria,' she said. But others expressed concern, including Alawite residents of the coastal province of Latakia, where much of the violence took place. Firas, a 43-year-old Alawite who only gave his first name out of fear of retribution, told Reuters that the extension was an attempt to 'stall and buy more time' and that he felt little hope the committee's work would lead to real accountability. In a statement on Friday, the committee's spokesperson, Yasser Farhan, said it recorded 41 sites where killings took place, each forming the basis for a separate case and requiring more time to gather evidence. He said some areas remained inaccessible due to time constraints, but that residents had cooperated, despite threats from pro-Assad remnants.
