Almost immediately after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime on December 8 last year, Israeli forces entered Syria’s southern Quneitra province and began conducting raids. Residents described how their quiet villages near the disputed Israeli border were jolted awake by the sound of armored vehicles and heavy military movement. “It was clear from their behavior that they intended to stay,” said a woman from Al-Hamidiyah village, recalling the day Israeli soldiers stormed her home.
Speaking to researchers from Human Rights Watch, based in New York, she said soldiers pointed guns at her and her two daughters while forcing her husband and son into another room. My daughters and I were held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., while my husband and son were not released until late at night, she said. The soldiers sat in our living room, laughing and speaking a language we couldn’t understand, as if it were their house.
Following Assad’s sudden ouster in a swift rebel advance, Israel quickly moved to fill the power vacuum. Its forces pushed deep into the UN-monitored demilitarized zone that separates the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.
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