{"id":627,"date":"2026-09-26T23:27:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T20:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/?p=627"},"modified":"2026-10-25T16:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:51:23","slug":"the-syrian-front-of-the-forever-war-and-the-lie-of-protecting-the-druze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/2026\/09\/the-syrian-front-of-the-forever-war-and-the-lie-of-protecting-the-druze\/","title":{"rendered":"The Syrian Front of the \u2018Forever War\u2019 and the Lie of Protecting the Druze"},"content":{"rendered":"

The capitalist occupation government of Netanyahu, backed by the entire Israeli establishment, saw 7 October 2023, in a cold calculation, as an opportunity to deepen processes of dispossession and annexation in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and to reshape the regional balance of forces through the deployment of firepower on an unprecedented scale, alongside the seizure of extensive \u2018buffer zones\u2019 in Lebanon and Syria. The seizure of power in Damascus by the Salafi forces of al-Sharaa\u02bf, under Turkish patronage, in December 2024 \u2014 immediately following the declaration of the Israel-Lebanon \u2018ceasefire\u2019 agreement (and the continuation of the occupation there) \u2014 was exploited for an invasion and the entrenchment of Israeli occupation in south-western Syria, beyond the annexed territory of the Golan. The Israeli military occupied extensive areas of Quneitra Governorate and also invaded parts of Daraa Governorate and the Rif Dimashq Governorate, uprooting residents and sowing death and destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Sharaa\u2019s authoritarian capitalist regime, which absorbed the forces of Hay\u02beat Ta\u1e25rir al-Sham (HTS) \u2014 themselves descended from al-Qa\u02bfeda \u2014 into the state apparatus, relies strategically on support from Turkey and the Western imperialist powers. Accordingly, it has acted to restrain the local activity of forces aligned with the Iranian regime and, under pressure from Trump, despite calling for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-2024 lines, established<\/a> this year a mechanism for indirect coordination aimed at de-escalation with Israel, ostensibly as a prelude to a more comprehensive agreement. Nevertheless, the Israeli government views its military entrenchment in Syria as a strategic asset, particularly for constraining the regime in Damascus. To that end, it has also fomented sectarian divisions as part of a classic \u2018divide and rule\u2019 strategy, cloaked in the false guise of protecting the Druze. Meanwhile, the population is also grappling with a severe economic crisis, which has triggered the largest wave of protests since the change of regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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al-Sharaa at the White House, 10 November 2025 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As part of the Israeli regime\u2019s campaign to reshape the region, 10 military bases have so far been established on Syrian territory, along with dozens of outposts, temporary checkpoints and inspection points. This has involved the killing, injury and abduction of residents, the destruction of homes, the confiscation of land and the expulsion of poor families. In 2025, 76 people were killed in Israeli occupation attacks in Syria, including dozens of unarmed civilians, among them women and children. At the same time, the Israeli military destroyed thousands of dunams of grazing land and agricultural fields and restricted access to farmland, water and sources of livelihood. As a result, along with direct expulsions of families from their homes at gunpoint and the seizure of houses, many residents have been displaced. These actions are intended to consolidate a long-term military occupation, aimed at controlling strategic points and \u2018dictating terms\u2019 to the regime in Damascus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netanyahu\u2019s government has officially declared that it seeks to prevent al-Sharaa\u2019s regime from exercising military control over the entire area south of Damascus \u2014 a prohibition it has enforced through aerial bombardment. The geostrategic rivalry between Israeli capitalism and its Turkish counterpart also plays a role in this context. Erdo\u011fan provides full backing to al-Sharaa\u2019s regime, and Syria is becoming a significant arena of confrontation between Israel and Turkey. The air strike on 18 August against the Abu al-\u1e92uhur military airport in Idlib Governorate was, according to Netanyahu<\/a>, a message directed against \u2018Turkish military entrenchment\u2019 in Syria. Like the attack on military airfields in March 2025<\/a>, the move was intended simultaneously to restrain any attempt to rebuild the Syrian Air Force and to make clear to the al-Sharaa regime that it must take account of the dictates of the Israeli occupation regime no less than those of Erdo\u011fan. The \u2018warning strike\u2019 on the Presidential Palace compound in Damascus in May 2025, and the bombing of the Ministry of Defence in Damascus in July 2025, provided further illustrations of this policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Golan Heights and the territories occupied since December 2024 in blue; areas under the control of the al-Sharaa regime in green; the autonomous area in As-Suwayda Governorate in light blue (Source: Liveuamap)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of Residents Disappeared<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Testimonies<\/a> from residents of villages in Quneitra Governorate recall the daily terror that the Israeli occupation imposes on the Palestinian population in the West Bank. Residents report a daily reality of military raids, checkpoints, and teenagers who leave for school and do not return because they have been seized by the military or, in the best-case scenario, interrogated, beaten and released several hours later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to reports, the Israeli military has abducted at least 47 Syrian civilians whose whereabouts remain unknown. They include teachers, fella\u1e25in, university students and school pupils (including minors), who have been held for more than six months and in some cases over a year in complete isolation from the outside world. Their families have no information regarding what has happened to them, where they are being held, their medical condition, what accusations, if any, have been levelled against them, or whether and when they will be released. Some of those who have since been freed, including a shepherd abducted by the Israeli military while at work, testified<\/a> that they were transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman torture camp and held there for periods ranging from several weeks to several months. Some underwent interrogations in which they were questioned about their political views regarding both the Assad regime and the new regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the testimony concerning teacher Hayam al-\u02bfAryan from the school in the town of Ghadir al-Bustan in southern Syria<\/a>, she was injured when Israeli soldiers smashed down the door of her home one night last February and set an attack dog on her. The dog bit her in the face while she lay in bed and then attacked her 19-year-old son, a student at a vocational institute, whom soldiers forced to kneel naked against a wall. Afterwards, \u2018the Israelis took both sons to an unknown location\u2019<\/em>. Since then, the family has received no information about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The families of the abducted Syrians have organised demonstrations in Damascus and outside the UNDOF base in Quneitra, demanding information about their loved ones and calling on the authorities in Damascus to place their release at the top of the agenda in any dealings with the Israeli government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Destruction of Infrastructure<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Satellite imagery from December 2024 and November 2025 shows a chain-like deployment of military outposts and fortified positions stretching across the rural expanse of Quneitra. The two northernmost sites, Jubata al-Khashab and al-\u1e24amidiyah, situated 2.3 kilometres apart, form a dense military cluster controlling the northern access routes into the occupation forces\u2019 area of operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In al-\u1e24amidiyah, occupation forces demolished 16 homes in order to establish a new military base. A resident of the village, who was expelled from her home along with her children and whose house was destroyed by the Israeli military, recounted<\/a> that this was the second time she had lost her home, after it had previously been destroyed during the civil war, in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions became refugees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018When we returned in 2018\u2026 we cut back on all our expenses, even food, and had to borrow money from relatives just to rebuild the house, because we couldn\u2019t afford to rent\u2026 And now, once again, I have to start from nothing.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In March, during the assault on Iran, Israeli military attacks in southern Syria intensified<\/a> alongside disruptions to the electricity supply, rising food prices and mounting economic pressure on residents as a result of the regional war ignited by US and Israeli imperialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The population of the region, which depends primarily on agriculture and already suffers from widespread poverty, has struggled to cope with the deprivation of livelihoods through the de facto expropriation of land, carried out by blocking roads with earth embankments and prohibiting residents from accessing their own fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Israeli forces sprayed toxic herbicides on agricultural land stretching along the border zone. The damage to the environment and to residents has been immense. Approximately 4,000 dunams of irrigated land were affected, the livelihoods of hundreds of families were destroyed, shepherds were forced to sell part of their flocks due to soaring feed prices, olive, wheat and barley crops were ruined, and women who relied on gathering wild plants from these areas for food and medicinal use lost a key source of income. Water experts fear that the toxic chemicals will seep into groundwater reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u1e24amza Ghadban, from the Sijil (\u0633\u062c\u0644) Centre, which monitors and documents attacks by the Israeli occupation in Syria, explained<\/a> that these measures constitute an attempt to \u2018silently displace people by killing their means of living, their income sources\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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