https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a...ghts-0rxlb9s2c
Assad forces trap civilians against Golan Heights
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people, interspersed with rebel groups fighting a rearguard action against advancing Assad regime forces, were crammed against the fence along Syria’s border with the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights yesterday. Rebel forces firing artillery less than 50 yards from the fence were seen in photographs taken from the Israeli side, as regime forces advanced to within a few miles.
Israel, which has dropped the rebel groups it once supported, is warning that it will not offer refuge. It is also warning the Assad regime not to bring its forces up to the fence, which is protected by a military exclusion zone under the 1974 UN-negotiated ceasefire which established the border. It is unclear whether the regime will respect that, given the presence of rebel militias, a circumstance not foreseen by the ceasefire treaty.....
Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, thought that he had won promises from President Putin of Russia that pro-Iranian forces would be kept away from the latest fighting. But Israeli military officials have confirmed rebel claims that pro-Iranian militias have nonetheless been operating within 20 miles of the border. They were spotted in the town of Da’el, 18 miles from the border.......
The White House decreed that it would not support the rebels if they resisted, and Israel, which had funnelled some money, aid and arms over the border to bolster the rebels against Iranian-backed forces, followed suit. Mr Netanyahu, in two visits to Moscow, asked Mr Putin for guarantees over the Iranian role in return. He is determined to prevent Iran building up a “new front” for anti-Israel activity in Syria, as it has done in areas of Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah.........
The International Rescue Committee said that 160,000 civilians had fled the fighting and were trapped between the border fence and the front lines. It said that many were living out in the open. “They can hear the fighting getting closer and worry it’s only a matter of time before the front line reaches them,” Mark Schnellbaecher, IRC’s Middle East vice-president, said.
Two hundred of the displaced marched up to the border, demanding to be let in, after an air strike on a school in the village of Ain al-Tineh, six miles from the fence, killed ten civilians. Ammar al-Zayed, 27, an activist currently near the border, said: “There’s only a little drinking water, there are no toilets, not enough tents, and no proper health care for children who are suffering diarrhoea and fatigue because of the high temperatures. Many people went to the Israeli border asking to be let in but nobody was allowed to come close at all.”
Israel has admitted thousands of Syrian civilians and rebel fighters for medical treatment, but has said it will not give them asylum...........