CrossFireArabia
Hundreds of Syrians demonstrated in the southern Daraa province on Tuesday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the demilitarization of southern Syria.
Protesters gathered in the March 18 Square in Daraa city, calling Netanyahu’s comments a “blatant interference” in Syria’s internal affairs, according to an Anadolu correspondent.
Israeli drones were seen flying over the area during the protest.
On Sunday, Netanyahu called for the complete demilitarization of southern Syria in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda from the forces of the new Syrian army.
“We will not tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria,” he claimed, saying that the Israeli army will stay in Syria’s buffer zone and the Syrian Hermon Mount “Jabal al-Sheikh” for “an unlimited period of time.”
After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.
Israel’s recent military advances in the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967, have drawn condemnation from the United Nations and several Arab nations.
