鈥榃e just want to live.鈥� Syrian farmers pay the price for Israeli power play.
| Koya and Maariya, Syria
Clinging to the fringe of a sweeping plateau at the southernmost tip of Syria, a cluster of six quiet farming communities has emerged as an unlikely, but hotly contested, geopolitical fault line.
Above the Yarmouk Valley in Daraa province, 25,000 villagers find themselves squeezed between two regional superpowers.
On one side is Israel, whose troops have seized a United Nations-designated demilitarized zone and pushed into a sliver of Syrian territory that includes the villagers鈥� homes and farms. Its aim is to push forces loyal to Syria鈥檚 new Islamist-leaning government far from the borders of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967.
Why We Wrote This
With Israel now occupying slivers of additional territory in southeast Syria, simple farming villages find themselves cut off from the rest of their country and struggling to live on a geopolitical fault line between Turkey and Israel.
On the other side is Turkey, which in recent years has adopted an increasingly adversarial stance toward Israel, and which this week signed a security alliance with Syria and Jordan. The prospect of Turkish soldiers operating from Syrian military bases south of Damascus is adding to Israel鈥檚 alarm.
Because Israel has stationed troops here, the Syrian army, police, and government-aligned militia cannot enter, leaving villagers cut off from the rest of the country and fending for themselves.
Israeli reconnaissance drones hover overhead. Israeli soldiers regularly stage nighttime raids on people鈥檚 homes.
But the people here say they simply want to farm.
鈥淲e did not attack you. Why are you coming to us?鈥� Farouq Ahmed, a community leader in the village of Abadin, recalls telling an Israeli officer. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have weapons, we don鈥檛 have Islamists. What have we done to you? We just want to live.鈥�
Israel鈥檚 move into Syria
When former President Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus last December, Israeli forces crossed the U.N. buffer zone and moved east, deeper into Syrian territory. In March, they began to advance further, encroaching here on this triangle of Syrian land between Jordan and the Golan Heights.
In late March, the advance sparked armed resistance from local residents who, relatives say, were defending their lands 鈥� leading to Israeli airstrikes that killed nine people.
Institute for the Study of War
Syria鈥檚 interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is seeking to ease tensions with Israel and give assurances to the West. He has opened diplomatic back channels with Israel and, in a meeting Wednesday with President Donald Trump, expressed Syria鈥檚 eventual willingness to join the Abraham Accords.
Yet the Israeli occupation here persists. Tensions remain high.
鈥淧eople are being impacted economically, socially, psychologically. Entire communities are being besieged, pressured, and cut off from their livelihoods,鈥� says Tarek Khalil, a Daraa lawyer who has been documenting Israel鈥檚 territorial violations. Pointing to a new hilltop position that Israeli forces have established at the edge of Abadin, he says, 鈥淚f Israel keeps entering and storming villages, this will add fuel to the fire.鈥�
Yarmouk Valley鈥檚 farmland
At the center of tensions are hundreds of acres of land in the Yarmouk Valley that these farming communities rely on, but which are now off-limits, the other side of the Israeli lines. The valley is rich with fields of wheat and barley, zucchini, tomatoes, and peas; groves of lemons, olives, and pomegranates; and thousands of beehives.
Farmers can no longer irrigate their crops, and shepherds can no longer reach their pastures. They are obliged to keep their flocks penned up, spending hundreds of dollars each month on animal feed. Shepherds are selling herds at a third of their market price.
鈥淭he Yarmouk Valley is our only source of living. We are willing to risk our lives for this valley,鈥� says Hani Mohammed, a farmer in the village of Koya, whose daughter was wounded by shrapnel in an Israeli drone strike last month. 鈥淚f we lose this valley, we will die of hunger.鈥�
In tough times, residents would normally sell off a few acres of their land, but now they can鈥檛 find any takers, even at a discount.
鈥淲hen you say the village鈥檚 name, people say, 鈥楴o, I won鈥檛 buy here. Maybe tomorrow Israel will come and take all of it,鈥欌�� says Mr. Ahmed.
鈥淲e did not attack anyone鈥�
Villagers say they want to go back to the terms of the 1974 U.N. Disengagement Agreement, which demarcated lines for Israeli and Syrian forces that were observed until earlier this year.
They are seeking support from the United Nations, Turkey, Gulf countries, Jordan, and anyone else who could help secure an Israeli withdrawal from their land.
鈥淲e did not attack anyone and we do not call for an attack on anyone,鈥� says Yassin Damara, a community leader in the border village of Maariya. 鈥淲e want to live in cooperation 鈥� and affection with all our neighbors, even Israel.
鈥淏ut,鈥� he cautions, 鈥渘ot at the expense of people鈥檚 rights and lands.鈥�
Residents say the armed groups who used to operate in the region left shortly before Mr. Assad鈥檚 fall and have not returned. The only arms they have, they insist, are hunting rifles used to protect their crops from wild boar.
The men killed fighting Israeli forces, 鈥渄id not go to Israeli land to fight Israelis on their lands. Israel came to their towns and they rose up to defend their lands and country,鈥� says Mr. Damara.
Israeli forces reportedly continue to raid homes suspected of storing weapons, and have dropped leaflets warning residents about 鈥済unmen.鈥�
Abadin resident Islam Hussein鈥檚 husband, Khalil Aref, a fowler and hunter, was arrested by Israeli authorities last month, leaving her to fend for their three young daughters without the household鈥檚 breadwinner.
鈥淲e always considered that we are in our valley and they are in their valley,鈥� she says of Israelis. 鈥淲e never interacted.
鈥淣ow I want to know what charges my husband faces and for him to be freed, to return to his family.鈥�
A willingness to fight
Some residents strike a more defiant tone.
鈥淲e want this to be resolved peacefully and ask international organizations to constrain Israel,鈥� says Mr. Mohammed, the farmer in Koya. 鈥淏ut if these incursions are repeated, we are willing to go into action and fight. We are just awaiting Sharaa鈥檚 word.鈥�
鈥淭hey have pushed us to the point of Palestinians: where dying defending your land is better than living and losing everything.鈥�
That call to action is likely not to come.
Damascus has gone at length to ease Israel鈥檚 concerns, with Mr. Sharaa acknowledging Syria and Israel have established indirect talks to 鈥渃alm鈥� the situation so that 鈥渋t does not reach a level that both sides lose control.鈥�
The Syrian military and government-aligned forces refuse to enter this contested zone to avoid any conflict with Israel.
But observers worry that, amid economic hardships and wilting farms, the vacuum left by the state may be filled with the extremist groups that Israel is trying to prevent from emerging.
鈥淭here are no extremist groups here, but with poverty, desperation, and hardship, the concern is that Israeli military violations may push people to extremism,鈥� says Mr. Khalil, the human rights lawyer. 鈥淭hat will be a lasting negative impact of this occupation.鈥�
