In Syria's Golan Heights buffer zone, residents fear Israel is making a land grab

QUNEITRA PROVINCE, GOLAN HEIGHTS, Syria — The Golan Heights is a rocky terrain dotted with olive trees and grazing cows, and it's enclosed by snow-capped mountains. For much of his life, Khaled Ramadan, 50, lived a peaceful life here, in the small Syrian village of Al-Rawady. But hours after rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, swept into the Syrian capital Damascus in early December, toppling Bashar al-Assad's regime, Ramadan was uprooted and displaced.

Ramadan said it wasn't HTS but a different force altogether that swept into his village and forced him and his wife and two children out.

"The Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled in, and there was gunfire on the homes," Ramadan says.

Since Assad's ouster last month, Israel's military has taken up a new post inside an internationally patrolled buffer zone between Syria and Israel. That's where Ramadan's village is located.

Israel says its military presence in the Golan Heights border highlands is vital for its national security. Syrian villagers there, like Ramadan, say the Israeli army has destroyed their homes, forced out residents and damaged water mains and other infrastructure. "We went with nothing but these clothes," says Ramadan.

Israel's military didn't respond to NPR's request for comment about the village's takeover.

Israel and Syria have been enemies for decades, fighting in conflicts including the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured parts of the Golan Heights and quickly established dozens of settlements considered illegal under international law.

In 1973, Syria tried to reclaim the Golan Heights in a war it waged on Israel with Egypt. It failed, but Israel and Syria agreed to sign an armistice, leading to a demilitarized buffer zone monitored by United Nations peacekeepers.

This buffer zone was taken over by the Israeli military hours after HTS swept into Damascus last month. Simultaneously, Israeli airstrikes destroyed multiple military installations, including fighter jets and weapon caches across Syria.

On the same day, Dec. 8, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the top of Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, wearing a body armor vest, and called the takeover of the buffer zone a "temporary defensive position" until "another suitable arrangement is found." He did not offer a withdrawal date. The United Nations has called on Israel to withdraw.

Almost a week later, Israel's government approved a plan to expand settlements in the Golan Heights. Netanyahu said he did not want conflict with Syria but still aimed to double the Israeli population in the occupied area. There are about 20,000 Israeli settlers living in the Golan Heights now.

Some Syrians fear that Israel is taking advantage of Syria's fledgling government to make a land grab. And many villagers are worried they'll be displaced, much like Ramadan was.

A meeting with the army

The floors of Mayor Mohamed Emreiwet's living room in the village of Jebat al-Khashab in the Quneitra province are covered with Middle Eastern carpets, and a wood-burning stove in the middle of the room keeps it warm. The walls are lined with photos of men with impressive mustaches — his grandfather, uncles and a relative who fought French colonialists in Syria a century ago.

Emreiwet says Israeli troops entered his village on Dec. 9, the day after Assad's fall, and he got word they wanted to meet with the village elders, including himself. He and other elders met with two or three officers and a number of soldiers in a forest on the road near his village.

"They said, 'We are here to protect ourselves by ourselves,'" Emreiwet told NPR. "They said, 'We don't trust anyone after the events of Oct. 7.' "

The Israeli troops were referring to the Hamas-led attacks on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, in which almost 1,200 people were killed and some 250 were taken hostage.

"They [Israeli troops] told us, 'You have weapons that we want, and we're going to come and search your homes,' " Emreiwat said.

The mayor told the troops that this would disturb his villagers and cause them anxiety, so to head off the searches, he and other community members announced on Facebook and via word of mouth that people should surrender their weapons.

"And we gave it to them," Emreiwet says.

Emreiwet sent word to the interim Syrian government about his encounter and says he was told negotiations with Israel were underway to leave the buffer zone soon.

NPR asked both Syria's interim government and the Israeli foreign ministry for an update, and neither responded.

"Israeli troops entering our village means displacement," Emreiwet said. "And no one is prepared to do that."

Protests and anger

The Israeli military has said it has been conducting "operational raids" to destroy and confiscate weapons.

This has angered villagers, who fear for their safety, and led to protests in the Golan Heights areas where Israeli forces have moved in.

Seventeen-year old Abdulrahman Aqqad sits huddled in blankets and a warm coat in a lawn chair in the sun outside his home in the village of Sweesa.

He said on Dec. 25, a group of men and women from his village went to protest a number of approaching Israeli troops.

"We were chanting, 'Syria is free, Israel get out,' when they started shooting," Aqqad told NPR.

Israeli troops fired into the crowd, he said, shooting him in both legs. Now he is unable to walk.

The Israeli military told NPR that soldiers "solely fired warning shots in the air" after a crowd they had told to retreat kept approaching them.

Israeli tanks just down the road

Mohamed Faroukh, 32, points down his street in the village of al-Baath. About 300 yards away, at an intersection, there's a sand-colored Israeli tank that rolled in a few days earlier.

"The tank comes down the street every night, does a loop, then goes back," he says, pointing at the white tank tracks on the ground.

Faroukh says he got into an argument with Israeli soldiers who told him he had gotten too close to their checkpoint.

"I have a wife, a daughter, a mother, who I am afraid for," he told NPR. He said his daughter has nightmares of the tank rolling into the village.

He says he would have to make some tough decisions if the Israelis got any closer or ended up occupying his village.

"There's no way I'd live under Israeli occupation," Faroukh says. "I'll pick myself up and go."