An Israeli helicopter landed overnight from Monday to Tuesday near a military installation in the Damascus region, according to sources cited by the Russian news agency Sputnik. “Soldiers entered the site and left after about 20 minutes, heading towards southern Syria,” the agency reports. Israeli strikes were reported shortly after in the Sitt Zaynab neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus. The Al-Mayadeen media, close to Hezbollah, reported on Tuesday new advances by the IDF in the buffer zone in Syria. According to their information, Israeli forces “entered the front neighborhoods of the town of Hader.”
Israeli officers have already met with village leaders and local elders in the area, following a video showing Druze residents of Hader demanding Israeli annexation of the area.
Syrian tribal sources told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, affiliated with Hezbollah, that some view a temporary Israeli presence in Druze villages as a preferable alternative to a takeover by the rebel group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, in awaiting the establishment of mechanisms to protect minorities in the country.
However, the report highlights that village leaders rejected the idea of annexation, emphasizing in their declarations their attachment to Syria.
