LONDON: Almost immediately after the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime on Dec. 8 last year, Israeli troops entered southern Syria’s Quneitra province and began raiding properties.
Residents recall their homes shaking as armored vehicles rolled through their normally quiet villages and troops took control of areas close to the disputed border with Israel.
“It was clear from their behavior that they intended to stay,” one woman from Al-Hamidiyah village said, recalling the day Israeli soldiers raided her home.
She told researchers from the New York-based Human Rights Watch that soldiers pointed their guns at her and her two daughters. They also forced her husband and son into another room at gunpoint.
“My daughters and I were held like that from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. My husband and son weren’t released until 11 p.m.,” she said. “The soldiers sat in our living room, laughing and speaking a language we didn’t understand, as if it were their house.”
