Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly announced some interesting demands regarding southern Syria during an IDF officer graduation ceremony on Sunday:
“We demand the complete demilitarization of southern Syria from military forces of the new regime. We will not tolerate any threat to the Druze in southern Syria.”
Sources in southern Syria report that IDF forces conducted a population census in the villages they entered in the Quneitra district in southern Syria and offered the residents employment opportunities in Israeli territory, at wages much higher than those offered in Syria, given the difficult economic situation there.
According to these sources, the residents of the villages of the Quneitra district were offered a plan whereby they would be able to enter Israeli territory in the morning and return to their homes in Quneitra in the evening (daily work permit).
These sources further add that Israel has offered humanitarian aid, including the supply of food and medicine, as well as the establishment of medical centers for the welfare of the residents of the region.
These proposals, along with Netanyahu’s statements yesterday, are interpreted as an Israeli move to establish a long-term Israeli presence in southern Syria with the aim of severing this province from the new Syrian government.
But, in Sara al-Sham, a Sunni village (without a Druze population) considered part of the Daraa Governorate in southern Syria, close to the border with Jordan:
There were demonstration condemning Netanyahu and his statements regarding the demilitarization of southern Syria:
“The protesters are chanting:
Netanyahu, you pig, Syria is not for division!
Syria is free and Israel – out.
Syria, Daraa is with you until death.”
