Syria’s new administration condemns Israeli incursions after strike in southern Syria killed three
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GHADIR AL-BUSTAN, Syria — Officials in Syria’s new de facto government hardened their tone Thursday against Israel’s incursions into Syrian territory after an Israeli strike killed three people and wounded five others in the south of the country.
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“Israel advanced into the buffer zone under the pretext of the presence of Iranian militias, but this excuse no longer holds after Damascus was liberated,” Ahmad al-Sharaa, leader of Syria’s new administration and formerly known as Mohammad al-Jolani, said at a press conference in the Syrian capital.
For decades, the Syrian-Israeli border remained largely quiet under a 1974 Disengagement Agreement, which established a U.N.-patrolled demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries after a war they fought the year before.
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However, after Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster on Dec. 8, Israeli forces entered the buffer zone, calling it a temporary move to block hostile forces. The move drew criticism and protests from local residents and Arab countries.
Sharaa, who was speaking alongside the visiting Qatari foreign minister, said Syria is ready to welcome international forces to the buffer zone, noting Qatar’s “central role” in creating international pressure on Israel to withdraw from the buffer zone.
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, condemned Israel’s occupation of the buffer zone and said its forces “must withdraw immediately.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israeli troops to “take over” the buffer zone, home to several Syrian villages, on Dec. 17, would remain there until a new arrangement was established to ensure Israel’s security. Israeli foreces have also made incursions into areas outside the buffer zone, sparking protests.
“These areas belong to the Syrian people, not the regime, and we must defend our homeland. Israel must respect Syria’s sovereignty just as they seek security for their own borders and homes,” Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said in an interview broadcast Thursday with Turkish network TRT.
He urged the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw from captured areas and called for respect for Syrian sovereignty.
“Everyone must respect others if they want to ensure their own security,” Shibani said.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian government assets, including jets, tanks, and missiles, particularly after Assad’s ouster.
On Wednesday, an Israeli strike in the Ghadir al-Bustan village in Quneitra province killed three people and injured several others, according to local residents and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.
Those killed included a local municipal official and security personnel linked to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the lightning offensive against Assad and is now leading Syria’s new administration.
The Israeli military said that the strikes targeted vehicles carrying weapons. HTS has not officially commented on the attack.
Nizar Mchel, a teacher from Ghadir al-Bustan, said the military and security forces of the new government had launched a campaign to confiscate unauthorized weapons.
He said Israeli drones targeted a convoy of military vehicles involved in the operation, as they drove north of the village.
At the funeral of Abdo Ali Kouma, a local official who was killed in the strike, scores of mourners carried his wooden coffin to the burial site, prayed for him, and laid him to rest.
“I was having lunch with friends, including Kouma, before he left to go to his house,” Kouma’s cousin, Abed al-Rahman al-Bustani, told The Associated Press. Minutes later, Bustani said, he heard drones overhead and felt the strike. “The rocket landed right between our houses, just 10 meters (33 feet) apart.”
“Kouma didn’t work, but everyone loved him. He was a good man,” Bustani added. He noted that at least three others were wounded in the strike. An Associated Press journalist visited one of the wounded members of the security forces in a local hospital.
“Our situation is not good. We demand Israel leave. They have destroyed our houses, drones are constantly overhead, and we don’t dare leave our homes,” Bustani said. “We live 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from them. We have not crossed their borders or caused them any harm, but they continue to intrude into all our villages.”
——
Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Omar Albam in Syria contributed to the report.
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GHADIR AL-BUSTAN, Syria — Officials in Syria’s new de facto government hardened their tone Thursday against Israel’s incursions into Syrian territory after an Israeli strike killed three people and wounded five others in the south of the country.
“Israel advanced into the buffer zone under the pretext of the presence of Iranian militias, but this excuse no longer holds after Damascus was liberated,” Ahmad al-Sharaa, leader of Syria’s new administration and formerly known as Mohammad al-Jolani, said at a press conference in the Syrian capital.
For decades, the Syrian-Israeli border remained largely quiet under a 1974 Disengagement Agreement, which established a U.N.-patrolled demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries after a war they fought the year before.
However, after Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster on Dec. 8, Israeli forces entered the buffer zone, calling it a temporary move to block hostile forces. The move drew criticism and protests from local residents and Arab countries.
Sharaa, who was speaking alongside the visiting Qatari foreign minister, said Syria is ready to welcome international forces to the buffer zone, noting Qatar’s “central role” in creating international pressure on Israel to withdraw from the buffer zone.
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, condemned Israel’s occupation of the buffer zone and said its forces “must withdraw immediately.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israeli troops to “take over” the buffer zone, home to several Syrian villages, on Dec. 17, would remain there until a new arrangement was established to ensure Israel’s security. Israeli foreces have also made incursions into areas outside the buffer zone, sparking protests.
“These areas belong to the Syrian people, not the regime, and we must defend our homeland. Israel must respect Syria’s sovereignty just as they seek security for their own borders and homes,” Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said in an interview broadcast Thursday with Turkish network TRT.
He urged the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw from captured areas and called for respect for Syrian sovereignty.
“Everyone must respect others if they want to ensure their own security,” Shibani said.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian government assets, including jets, tanks, and missiles, particularly after Assad’s ouster.
On Wednesday, an Israeli strike in the Ghadir al-Bustan village in Quneitra province killed three people and injured several others, according to local residents and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.
Those killed included a local municipal official and security personnel linked to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the lightning offensive against Assad and is now leading Syria’s new administration.
The Israeli military said that the strikes targeted vehicles carrying weapons. HTS has not officially commented on the attack.
Nizar Mchel, a teacher from Ghadir al-Bustan, said the military and security forces of the new government had launched a campaign to confiscate unauthorized weapons.
He said Israeli drones targeted a convoy of military vehicles involved in the operation, as they drove north of the village.
At the funeral of Abdo Ali Kouma, a local official who was killed in the strike, scores of mourners carried his wooden coffin to the burial site, prayed for him, and laid him to rest.
“I was having lunch with friends, including Kouma, before he left to go to his house,” Kouma’s cousin, Abed al-Rahman al-Bustani, told The Associated Press. Minutes later, Bustani said, he heard drones overhead and felt the strike. “The rocket landed right between our houses, just 10 meters (33 feet) apart.”
“Kouma didn’t work, but everyone loved him. He was a good man,” Bustani added. He noted that at least three others were wounded in the strike. An Associated Press journalist visited one of the wounded members of the security forces in a local hospital.
“Our situation is not good. We demand Israel leave. They have destroyed our houses, drones are constantly overhead, and we don’t dare leave our homes,” Bustani said. “We live 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from them. We have not crossed their borders or caused them any harm, but they continue to intrude into all our villages.”
——
Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Omar Albam in Syria contributed to the report.
