File photo: A child looks on as Israeli soldiers patrol in the Syrian town of Jubata al-Khashab, in the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. AFP
Satellite images obtained by the Washington Post show more than half a dozen buildings and vehicles at a walled Israeli base near the village of Jubata Al-Khassab in the Quneitra Governorate.
Israel's army has also built an almost identical structure five miles to the south, with both outposts connected by new dirt roads leading to the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967.
Moreover, the satellite images revealed a cleared area a few miles south, which experts suggest to be the beginning of a third base.
Following President Bashar Al-Assad's fall in December, Israeli forces occupied the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, claiming the change of control in Damascus meant that the 1974 ceasefire arrangements had collapsed.
The Israeli troops also advanced deep into south Syria, occupying several sites beyond the buffer zone area, local officials said.
The Post also confirmed that the Israeli buildings and vehicles indicate a long-term presence, contrary to Israel's claims that it is temporary.
“They are building military bases. How is that temporary?” asked Mohammed Muraiwid, the mayor of Jubata Al-Khassab, who has watched Israeli troops construct a new military outpost on the edge of his village.
Muraiwid told the Post that Israeli bulldozers have ripped down village fruit trees and other trees in a part of a protected nature reserve to build the outpost near Jubata Al-Khassab.
“We told them we consider this an occupation,” said the mayor.
Since entering Syria, Israeli soldiers have also set up checkpoints, closed roads, raided houses, displaced residents, and fired on protesters who have demonstrated against their presence, locals reported.
The transitional authorities in Syria, along with several countries in the region and beyond, have called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the areas they recently occupied in the country.
According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa demanded that the United States pressure Israel to pull its forces out of southern Syria.
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