Syrian media reported that one person was wounded after Israeli troops opened fire Friday, December 20, on demonstrators in southern Syria. Friday’s incident came a day after villagers said that the Israeli occupation troops stationed in the abandoned Syrian army base were preventing local farmers from accessing their fields.

Syrian citizens demonstration against the Israeli occupation, December 20, 2024 (Photo: Daraa 24)

According to the local Daraa 24 website, residents of Maariya town in the Yarmouk River basin gathered near the former Syrian army post close to the village of Maariya to protest the Israeli occupation. The outlet said the soldiers opened fire first in the air to stop the demonstrators from approaching, and earlier against the demonstrators. One person, Maher Muhammad Al-Hussein, was hit directly and wounded.

Maariya, on the western edge of Syria’s southern Daraa province, is near the occupied Golan Heights, but outside of a buffer zone in the Golan established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel. On last week, the far-right Israeli government ordered occupation troops to prepare to remain inside the buffer zone that has existed for decades with Syria until the end of 2025.

The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash said last week that Israel must withdraw forces from the buffer zone separating the occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory. “Any military deployment in the separation zone between Israel and Syria is a violation of the disengagement agreement of 1974. We call on Israel to withdraw from the zone and to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a spokesman says.

Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32321