Syria | Israel approves plan to double population of annexed Golan

(Jerusalem) The Israeli government approved on Sunday a project aimed at doubling the population in the part of the Syrian Golan annexed by Israel, but says it has no interest in entering into conflict with Syria, after taking control of the buffer zone monitored by the UN.

Just a few hours after the fall on December 8 of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, driven from power by rebels, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to seize this buffer zone controlled by the UN separating the two countries on the Golan Heights.

A UN official in New York confirmed to AFP that the peacekeeping force had “noted a number of daily incidents where the Israeli army is operating east of the buffer zone.”

On Sunday, the Israeli government “unanimously” approved Mr. Netanyahu’s project for “demographic development of the localities of the Golan and [la ville de] Katzrin for a sum of 40 million shekels (15.83 million Canadian dollars), in light of the war and the new front in Syria and the desire to double the population of the Golan,” according to a statement from his office.

“This is a decision that strengthens the localities of the Golan and the State of Israel,” the statement added. At the same time, Mr. Netanyahu stressed that his country did not want to enter into conflict with Syria.

“We have no interest in confronting Syria, we will define Israel’s policy towards Syria based on the reality on the ground,” he said in a video released by his office.

“Today, everyone understands the critical importance of our presence on the Golan, and not at the foot of the Golan,” which overlooks the Galilee Hills and Lake Galilee in northern Israel, Mr. Netanyahu.

Around 30,000 Israeli citizens live in 34 localities in the Golan annexed by Israel, to which are added 23,000 Druze, a community whose religion comes from Islam, who mostly claim to be Syrians while having the status of residents in Israel.

Israel conquered part of the Golan, in southwest Syria, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, before annexing the territory in 1981. Only the United States, under the administration of Donald Trump, recognized this annexation in 2019.

“For eternity”

Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned the Israeli government’s plan to double the population in the Israeli-occupied part of the Syrian Golan, denouncing “continued sabotage of opportunities to restore security and stability in Syria” after the fall of Assad .

For its part, Qatar deplored “a new episode in the series of Israeli aggressions on Syrian territories and a flagrant violation of international law”.

Last week, Mr Netanyahu declared that the annexed Golan would be Israeli “for eternity”.

The Israeli army also seized areas beyond the buffer zone. Israel presented the action, which drew international condemnation, as a temporary and defensive measure.

In the process, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered troops to “prepare to stay” all winter in the buffer zone.

In a video statement Sunday following a phone call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Netanyahu said Syria had attacked Israel in the past and enabled others, including Lebanese Hezbollah, to do so. from its territory.

“To ensure that what happened in the past is not repeated, we have taken a series of intensive measures in recent days,” he said. “In a matter of days, we destroyed the capabilities that the Assad regime had built over decades,” he added.

The Israeli army “violently” hit numerous military installations on the Syrian coast during the night from Sunday to Monday, an NGO said, raids which caused panic among residents, according to an AFP journalist.

“Israeli warplanes launched strikes” on several sites, including air defense units and “surface-to-surface missile depots,” according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).

The NGO claims that these are the “heaviest strikes since 2012” in the coastal region of Tartous (West), which is home to a Russian naval base.

Since the capture of Damascus by an armed coalition that overthrew Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 473 Israeli strikes have targeted military sites across Syria, the OSDH said on Monday.

In the village of Bmalkah, on the heights of the town of Tartous, the roads are littered with broken glass. In the orchards, the blast of bombing tore the leaves from the olive trees and thick smoke rose from the surrounding hills, AFP noted.

“It started shortly after midnight and continued until 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Eastern Time). It was like an earthquake. All the windows in my house exploded,” says Ibrahim Ahmed, a 28-year-old employee in a law firm.

“The village did not sleep all night. The children were crying. There are no more windows left in the houses,” says a man who refused to give his name.