The Israeli army has decided to allow organised tours for Israeli tourists inside illegally occupied Syrian territories during the Jewish Passover holiday (Pesach), which begins on 12 April.
Israel will open the border fence in two specific sections under its control, leading into the buffer zone in southern Syria.
This action enables two "educational" institutes, Midreshet HaGolan and Midreshet Keshet Yonatan, to organise tours into Wadi al-Ruqqad, a valley located on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights which contains a tributary stream of the Yarmouk River.
According to an invitation published on the Hebrew website Kipa, primarily targeting religious-nationalist settlers, the two institutes "in cooperation with the Northern Command of the army and the 210th Division, invite the public to participate for the first time in tours to Wadi al-Ruqqad, located outside the Israeli-Syrian border... Until a few months ago, only a few Israelis were permitted to visit the valley".
The tours, according to the invitation, "will be held during the Pesach holiday, twice daily, a morning tour and an afternoon tour."
The organisers clarified that "thanks to Operation Arrow of Bashan in Syrian territories (the Israeli invasion of Syria), the opportunity is now available to the broader public".
Meanwhile, the Israeli news outlet Maariv reported confirmation by the Northern Command of the army that the border fence will indeed be opened in two sections for these tours. However, the army claims that "the area citizens will tour is considered part of land defined as Israeli territory, and citizens will move between the border fence and the boundary markers placed by the United Nations.
The area that Israel identifies as its own territory is actually the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and illegally annexed in 1981.
Almost as soon a Syrian rebel coalition overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel exploited the situation by seizing Syrian territory adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights in southwestern Syria.
Since then, it has unleashed unprecedented airstrikes on Syrian targets, killing dozens of civilians and destroying key infrastructure in the country. It has also issued numerous threats against the Syrian government, warning its security forces to stay out of the south.
Israeli shelling on Wednesday night killed 11 Syrians in Daraa. On Thursday, the UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen decried "the repeated and intensifying military escalations by Israel in Syria, including air strikes that have reportedly resulted in civilian casualties".
"Such actions undermine efforts to build a new Syria at peace with itself and the region, and destabilise Syria at a sensitive time," he said in a statement.
On Thursday evening, a UN-led delegation visited Qasr Abu Samra village in the Suran area of rural Hama, central Syria, to assess the severe destruction caused by previous chemical attacks carried out by the Assad regime.
Khaled Fawaz, a displaced villager, told The New Arab's Arabic language sister outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the delegation noted the catastrophic conditions and lack of essential services preventing displaced residents from returning.
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