Israel agreed on Sunday to double its population in the occupied Golan Heights, citing ongoing threats from Syria despite the moderate tone of rebel fighters who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago.
“Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israel captured most of the strategic plateau from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981. In 2019, then-President Trump declared US support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, though the annexation remains unrecognised by most countries. Syria continues to demand Israel’s withdrawal, but Israel refuses, citing security concerns.
“The immediate risks to the country have not disappeared, and the latest developments in Syria increase the strength of the threat — despite the moderate image that the rebel leaders claim to present,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said during discussions on Israel’s defence budget, according to a statement.
Netanyahu’s office announced that the government unanimously approved a plan worth more than 40 million shekels (£8.5 million) to encourage demographic growth in the Golan. Netanyahu proposed the plan “in light of the war and the new front facing Syria, and out of a desire to double the population of the Golan.”
Currently, 31,000 Israelis live in the Golan Heights, according to Avraham Levine, an analyst at the Alma Research and Education Centre specialising in Israel’s northern security challenges. The area is also home to 24,000 Druze, an Arab minority who practise an offshoot of Islam. Most Druze residents identify as Syrian.
Syria’s de facto leader, Abu Muhammed al-Jolani, who heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said on Saturday that Israel was using false pretexts to justify attacks on Syria. However, he expressed no interest in engaging in new conflicts, stating his country was focused on rebuilding.
Since Assad’s fall, Israel has entered a demilitarised zone inside Syria and conducted hundreds of strikes on strategic weapons stockpiles. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israel launched 75 strikes on Syria, beginning on Saturday night, targeting locations near Damascus, Hama, and Homs.
Racy photos of Assad go viral, spark ridicule
Bizarre and personal photos of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have surfaced from his abandoned residences, drawing ridicule from Syrians who, until recently, faced persecution for criticising his regime.
The images, reportedly found in photo albums from Assad’s luxurious mansions in Damascus and Aleppo, presented an unflattering portrayal of Bashar and his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron grip for decades. The photos stripped away the carefully curated public image of the Assad family.
One photo showed Hafez Assad in his underwear, posing like a bodybuilder. Other images depicted Bashar Assad in a Speedo, flexing his biceps; astride a yellow motorcycle in his briefs; perched on a handcycle, also in his briefs; and staring blankly in a kitchen, wearing only white underwear and a sleeveless vest.
Social media footage revealed Syrians exploring the Assads’ opulent estates, showcasing extravagant decor, jacuzzis, and other luxuries unattainable for ordinary Syrians enduring civil war since 2011. Driven by years of persecution and a thirst for vengeance, people stripped the mansions of valuables and unveiled Assad’s private world, including his personal photo collections.
The unbecoming images of Assad, often in various states of undress and unusual situations, quickly went viral, becoming a source of mockery. “What is it with the Assad family and being photographed in their underwear? Highly interested in knowing the fantasy behind it,” journalist Hussam Hammoud wrote on X.
One particularly odd image showed Bashar in a Speedo on a boat surrounded by others. Another depicted him on a balcony overlooking the sea, teasing a girl sitting on his shoulders. In a mountainous setting, a group photo included Bashar alongside his maternal cousin, Ihab Makhlouf, who wore a T-shirt featuring an image of Hitler.
US in direct contact with rebels behind Assad’s exit
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed on Saturday that Washington had established direct contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, despite the group being previously designated as “terrorists.”
While Blinken declined to discuss the specifics of talks with HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups to drive Assad into exile in Russia, he stated that easing sanctions on Syria would depend on “sustained action” by the rebel-installed interim government.
Follow us
