At the forefront of the border triangle between Syria, Jordan and Israel, the Syrian village of Kouwaya offers a breathtaking view of the fertile land irrigated by the Yarmouk river, which flows below. And on the way Israel is essential in the landscape. Abderrahman al-Moufla, the mokhtar (“Mayor”) of Kouwaya, designates a neighboring hill on the crest line. Up there are the Syrian village of Maarbé And, recently, a new position of the Israeli army: “From this hill, Israel controls the whole region “he worries.
On the morning of March 25, a patrol of the Israeli army, for the first time, ventured beyond the Demilitarized buffer zone which borders the Golan annexed since 1981, in the valley which crisscrosses between the Syrian hills. “The soldiers have invaded our farms,, tell the mokhtar. Then courageous men of the village, Bedouins of the Al-Manadra tribe, defended their land, armed with sticks and Kalashnikovs. »»
In this altercation, “Two of them were killed, as well as three Israeli soldiers”says Mifleh Souleiman, a sixty -something farmer and brother of one of the Syrian victims. Israel did not recognize human losses, but announced that it immediately retaliated. “Kouwaya was bombed with Israeli tanks and drones, from positions that the Syrian army held until the fall of Bashar al-Assad [le 8 décembre 2024],, in Maarbé, Aabidine and Jamlédetails Mr. Souleiman. Then the Israeli soldiers seized the places. Since then, they regularly search the houses looking for weapons. »»
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Source: Lemonde