In the Golan Heights, Syrians denounce the presence of the Israeli army and forced displacements

Sunday, December 8, at dawn, Ghada Ramadan was awakened by the sound of automatic weapons fire and air raids. “We didn’t know what was happening, we didn’t even know that Bachar [Al-Assad, le dirigeant syrien] had fallen. The first thing we heard was the Israeli invasion.”says this 50-year-old cow breeder from Rasm Al-Rawadi. Around 5:30 a.m., armored units of the Jewish State entered this hamlet in the Syrian province of Kuneitra, nestled in the heart of the demilitarized zone established in 1974 between Syria and the Golan Heights illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

Throughout the morning, Ghada Ramadan and her family remained cooped up in their home, until Israeli soldiers broke down their door around 11 a.m. “They were masked, the children were panicking. They forced us out of our homes at gunpoint.”she continues, miming the scene with large gestures. The inhabitants are then gathered in a school, the men separated from the women and children. Some are questioned, most of them registered by the Israeli army, which takes photos and identity cards.

“During that time, they searched every house. Their tanks destroyed homes. After more than four hours, they told us: “This is now a military position, you have a few minutes to evacuate.”laments the breeder who, like all of the 350 inhabitants of the hamlet, was forced to leave. “We lived under the yoke of Bashar and today under that of the Israelis. Will we one day have the right to a decent life? We just want to go home”implores the one who found refuge in a small farm nearby where around thirty displaced people are crowded together.

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