Israeli army orders residents of 5 Syrian villages to ‘stay home’ ahead of planned activities

By Said Amori

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army warned residents of five villages in southern Syria close to Israel’s border on Sunday to remain in their homes due to planned activities in the area.

The move follows its occupation of the Mount Hermon area, the establishment of a buffer zone between the two countries and its bombing of "weapons storage" facilities at Damascus airport and in the south.

"Urgent warning to residents in southern Syria in the following villages: Ofaniya, Quneitra, al-Hamidiyah, Samdaniya al-Gharbiyya and al-Qahtaniyah. Combat inside your areas forces the army to take action,” Army spokesperson Avichai Adraee said on X.

"You must stay in your homes and not leave until further notice," he added.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that a UN-monitored disengagement agreement which established a buffer zone between Israel and Syria had "collapsed” after Syrian troops withdrew from the area following the change of power in Damascus.

The agreement was signed between Israel and Syria on May 31, 1974 and ended the Oct. 6, 1973 war and subsequent war of attrition on the Syrian front.

It stipulated Israel's withdrawal from all of the areas of Mount Hermon it had occupied during the war as well as an area of about 25 square kilometers (9.6 square miles) that included Quneitra and other small areas occupied in the 1967 war.

The agreement defined the current borders between Israel and Syria along with the accompanying military arrangements, creating two separation lines -- Israeli (blue) and Syrian (red) -- with a buffer zone between them.

Bashar al-Assad and his family fled Syria and arrived in Moscow on Sunday, where Russia offered them asylum, Russia’s state news agency reported, after anti-regime groups took control of the capital Damascus earlier in the day, marking the collapse of the Baath Party regime, which had been in power in Syria since 1963.

It came nearly a week after anti-regime groups seized control of Aleppo, a major city in northern Syria.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala