Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of towns in southern Syria on Friday, expressing solidarity with Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and siege and condemning a recently passed Israeli law which allows for the execution of Palestinian prisoners. Protests took place after Friday prayers in the towns of Al-Jizah and Maliha al-Atash in the east of Daraa province, as well as in the Daraa Refugee Camp, which is home to a mix of Syrians displaced from the occupied Golan Heights and Palestinian refugees.
In Al-Jizah, which is near the Jordanian border, protesters raised Syrian and Palestinian flags and anti-Israel banners. They chanted slogans in support of Gaza and warning the Israeli army if it continues with incursions in southern Syria.
Also on Friday, Israeli forces killed a Syrian man in Quneitra province near the occupied Golan Heights.
The protests are viewed as an expression of accumulated hostility to Israel in Syria, amid its continued airstrikes on Syria and incursions into Syrian territory , which have led to dozens of Syrians being killed, injured or detained, as well as its actions in the wider region.
Mohammad Al-Jadaan, a protester in the town of Al-Hara in Daraa province, told The New Arab, “The protests are not just for Gaza. We are demonstrating because we see Israeli tanks on our land. What is happening to Palestinian prisoners is also a message to us - that this enemy respects neither law nor humanity.”
Sheikh Ihsan Al-Zoubi, from the town of Al-Muzayrib in western Daraa province, said that the Israeli decision to execute Palestinian prisoners was the “spark” for the protests but that the main causes were “repeated Israeli incursions into Syrian territory, accompanied by daily, aggressive, and provocative interactions with residents” as well as “attempts by Israeli forces to impose a new security reality in the border region, which is seen as paving the way for a de facto buffer zone.”
Al-Zoubi also said that residents of southwestern Syria felt that their government had effectively abandoned them, leaving them to confront Israeli forces, saying that there was an “effective absence of the Syrian state and its institutions in most border areas of Daraa and Quneitra.”
Over the past few days thousands of Syrians across the country have taken part in protests against Israel and in support of Palestine. Demonstrations have taken place in major cities such as Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs as well as Idlib and the south of the country.
Protesters marched on foot and drove in cars and motorcycles, carrying Syrian and Palestinian flags and banners calling for the repeal of the Israeli death penalty law, while chanting support of Gaza.
The greatest concentration of protests was in the south, including in the cities of Tafas, Jasem, Nawa, and Sheikh Miskeen in Daraa province, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
In Quneitra, which is on the frontline of territories recently occupied by Israel, protersters attempted to approach the town of Al-Rafid and the front lines, prompting Israeli forces to fire illumination flares - an indication of heightened alert and concern that the movement could turn into an actual breach of the border.
Journalist Mohammad Al-Aweed noted that Palestinian factions had expressed support for the protests and an armed group had emerged in the town of Zakia near the Golan Heights, calling for a “general mobilization”.
He expressed concern that Israel’s far-right government could use these as a pretext to expand its attacks in Syria.