Quneitra Families Urge UNDOF to Secure Detainees’ Release

A delegation from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, UNDOF, met a number of residents and relatives of detainees held in Israeli prisons in Jubata al-Khashab (Quneitra, southern Syria) on Tuesday, April 21.

The meeting focused on residents’ demands and humanitarian concerns, with emphasis on the violations and breaches affecting the population, particularly the detainees’ file, according to Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Quneitra.

The correspondent said residents called for the release of detainees held in prisons run by the Israeli army, clarification of their fate, and an end to violations by Israeli forces in the area bordering the occupied Golan.

UNDOF forces had intensified their presence near the villages of Rafid, Suwaysah, and Sida Golan in southern Quneitra on April 9, in preparation for patrols along the separation line with the occupied Syrian Golan.

Israeli army incursions into the Quneitra countryside have meanwhile continued, accompanied by search campaigns, raids, arrests, and the establishment of road checkpoints.

Residents: Release Detainees, Stop the Violations

Hussein Saad al-Din, a resident of Jubata al-Khashab, told Enab Baladi that he asked the delegation to secure the release of his son, Saddam, who is only 17 years old and has been detained for more than a year and a half.

He also stressed the need to stop repeated violations against innocent civilians in the ceasefire area and to end harassment of residents, especially in farming and grazing.

Hael al-Abdallah, the mukhtar of Al-Samdaniyah village, told Enab Baladi that the meeting had been repeated more than once with UN delegations, but without result.

He said residents had repeatedly demanded an end to Israeli violations and arrests, the release of detainees, a halt to the bulldozing of agricultural land, and an end to restrictions on cultivated areas.

Most of the families who attended the meeting with the UN delegation had been harmed by the arrest of a family member, including families from Beit Jinn (Rif Dimashq, southern Syria), Jubata al-Khashab, and Ghadir al-Bustan, according to the mukhtar of Al-Samdaniyah.

The meeting came at the request of the UN team, which holds regular meetings in different parts of the province in the presence of district directors. Members of the UN team said their task was to raise these demands and discuss them with higher bodies within UN organizations.

Farmer Arrested

The Israeli army detained a farmer in the northern countryside of Quneitra, southern Syria, during an incursion on Tuesday morning, April 21.

Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Quneitra said an Israeli military patrol arrested Riyad Mohammad Younes from Taranja, in northern Quneitra, where he works as a livestock farmer.

The Israeli army had earlier released Alaa Bakr after detaining him for several hours in the same village.

At the same time, the correspondent said a patrol from the military base in the Jubata al-Khashab forest reserve advanced into Jubata al-Khashab and Taranja and searched several homes in Taranja.

Expanding a Base in Quneitra Countryside

Israeli army forces moved three prefabricated rooms to Eastern Tal al-Ahmar, in southern Quneitra province, on Friday, April 17.

Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Quneitra said Israeli army forces moved three prefabricated rooms to Eastern Tal al-Ahmar, in southern Quneitra province, on Friday, April 17.

This comes as part of the expansion work at the base established on the hill after the fall of the previous regime and the Israeli forces’ advance into the buffer zone. The correspondent added that Israeli forces had earlier shelled areas surrounding the hill with artillery rounds.

Eastern Tal al-Ahmar holds a strategic geographic position in the southern part of Quneitra province, as it lies inside the buffer zone along the barbed-wire fence.

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