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Protesters Storm Governor’s Office in Southern Syrian City, 2 Killed in Clashes

Smoke rises near a building as people take part in a protest in Sweida, Syria, December 4, 2022, in this picture obtained by Reuters. (Suwayda 24/via Reuters)
Smoke rises near a building as people take part in a protest in Sweida, Syria, December 4, 2022, in this picture obtained by Reuters. (Suwayda 24/via Reuters)
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Protesters Storm Governor’s Office in Southern Syrian City, 2 Killed in Clashes

Smoke rises near a building as people take part in a protest in Sweida, Syria, December 4, 2022, in this picture obtained by Reuters. (Suwayda 24/via Reuters)
Smoke rises near a building as people take part in a protest in Sweida, Syria, December 4, 2022, in this picture obtained by Reuters. (Suwayda 24/via Reuters)

Dozens of demonstrators angry over worsening economic conditions in Syria stormed and ransacked the governor's office in the southern city of Sweida on Sunday, clashing with police, the authorities and witnesses said. 

Earlier, more than 200 people had gathered around the building in the center of the Druze-majority city, chanting slogans calling for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, they said, amid spiraling prices and economic hardship. 

"Down with Assad," the crowd chanted. Anti-government protests in state-controlled areas in Syria are not tolerated and rare. 

Syrian state media said tens of "outlaws" stormed the governor's office and burned files and official papers. 

The Ministry of Interior said they had also tried to seize the city's police headquarters, and that one policeman was killed in the ensuing clashes. 

"We will pursue all the outlaws and take all legal measures against anyone who dares to undermine the security and stability of the province," the government statement said. 

Three witnesses told Reuters the governor was not in the building which was vacated before protesters stormed and ransacked offices. 

"The governor's office was burnt completely from the inside," said Rayan Maarouf, a civic activist and editor of Suwayda 24, a local website that covers the southern region, who said several people were wounded in the exchange of gunshots. 

"There was heavy gunfire," Maarouf told Reuters, saying it was not clear from where the shooting came in the heavily policed area. 

A source in the city hospital said one civilian who was being treated had died from gunshot wounds while another was still in hospital after being shot. 

Sweida province has been spared the violence seen in other parts of Syria since the start of the over-decade long conflict that began after pro-democracy protests erupted against Assad's family rule were violently crushed by security forces. 

Syria is in the throes of a deep economic crisis where a majority of people after a devastating conflict that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions struggle to afford food and basic goods. 

Witnesses in Sweida told Reuters that once inside the building, demonstrators brought down pictures of Assad. 

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Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

A main road in the provincial capital of Quneitra in southern Syria was blocked with mounds of dirt, fallen palm trees and a metal pole that appeared to have once been a traffic light. On the other side of the barriers, an Israeli tank could be seen maneuvering in the middle of the street.
Israeli forces entered the area — which lies in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel — soon after the fall of President Bashar Assad last month in the country's 13-year civil war.
The Israeli military has also made incursions into Syrian territory outside of the buffer zone, sparking protests by local residents. They said the Israeli forces had demolished homes and prevented farmers from going to their fields in some areas. On at least two occasions, Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on protesters who approached them.
Residents of Quneitra, a seemingly serene bucolic expanse of small villages and olive groves, said they are frustrated, both by the Israeli advances and by the lack of action from Syria’s new authorities and the international community.
Rinata Fastas said that Israeli forces had raided the local government buildings but had not so far entered residential neighborhoods. Her house lies just inside of the newly blocked-off area in the provincial capital formerly called Baath City, after Assad's former ruling party, and now renamed Salam City.
She said she is afraid Israeli troops may advance farther or try to permanently occupy the area they have already taken. Israel still controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. The international community, with the exception of the US, regards it as occupied.
Fastas said she understands that Syria, which is now trying to build its national institutions and army from scratch, is no position to militarily confront Israel.
“But why is no one in the new Syrian state coming out and talking about the violations that are happening in Quneitra province and against the rights of its people?” she asked.
The United Nations has accused Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire agreement by entering the buffer zone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said troops will stay on "until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s security.” He was speaking from the snowy peak of Mount Hermon, Syria’s tallest mountain known as Jabal al Sheikh in Arabic, which has now been captured by Israeli forces.
An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter, said the military will remain in the area it has taken until it is satisfied that the new Syrian authorities do not pose a danger to Israel.
The new Syrian government has lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council about Israeli airstrikes and advances into Syrian territory.
The country’s new de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has also publicly said Syria is not seeking a military conflict with Israel and will not pose a threat to its neighbors or to the West.
In the meantime, residents of Quneitra have largely been left to fend for themselves.
In the village of Rafid, inside the buffer zone, locals said the Israeli military had demolished two civilian houses and a grove of trees as well as a former Syrian army outpost.
Mayor Omar Mahmoud Ismail said when the Israeli forces entered the village, an Israeli officer greeted him and told him, “I am your friend.”
“I told him, ‘You are not my friend, and if you were, you wouldn’t enter like this,’" Ismail said.
Locals who organized a protest were met with Israeli fire
In Dawaya, a village outside the buffer zone, 18-year-old Abdelrahman Khaled al-Aqqa was lying on a mattress in his family home Sunday, still recovering after being shot in both legs. Al-Aqqa said he joined about 100 people from the area on Dec. 25 in protest against the Israeli incursion, chanting “Syria is free, Israel get out!”
“We didn’t have any weapons, we were just there in the clothes we were wearing,” he said. “But when we got close to them, they started shooting at us.”
Six protesters were wounded, according to residents and media reports. Another man was injured on Dec. 20 in a similar incident in the village of Maariyah. The Israeli army said at the time that it had fired because the man was quickly approaching and ignored calls to stop.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Dec. 25 incident.
Adel Subhi al-Ali, a local Sunni religious official, sat with his 21-year-old son, Moutasem, who was recovering after being shot in the stomach in the Dec. 25 protest. He was driven first to a local hospital that did not have the capacity to treat him, and then to Damascus where he underwent surgery.
When he saw the Israeli tanks moving in, “We felt that an occupation is occupying our land. So we had to defend it, even though we didn’t have weapons, ... It is impossible for them to settle here,” al-Ali said.
Since the day of the protest, the Israeli army has not returned to the area, he said.
Al-Ali called for the international community to “pressure Israel to return to what was agreed upon with the former regime,” referring to the 1974 ceasefire agreement, and to return the Golan Heights to Syria.
But he acknowledged that Syria has little leverage.
“We are starting from zero, we need to build a state,” al-Ali said, echoing Syria's new leaders. “We are not ready as a country now to open wars with another country."