Golan Heights Druze population on Syrian border fear territorial battles

On the outskirts of the Druze village of Majdal Shams, high in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a gate in the fence leads to the supposedly demilitarised buffer zone on the Syrian side.

- Peter Beaumont

Known as the Shouting Hill, local Druze villagers have long gathered here to shout messages - sometimes even marriage proposals - to relatives and friends on the other side.

Yesterday, four days after Israeli troops seized control of the buffer zone as Syrian rebels took over in Damascus, there were no relatives waiting to receive messages. Instead, four-wheel-drive vehicles and tanks continued to pour through the gate, joining the massed ranks of Israeli soldiers operating as far as the eye could see. On the rocky hillside less than a mile away, Israeli flags could be seen flying, while a woman nearby - the only civilian in view - collected wood. Further away still, high on the ridge, there were tanks and a road crew busy widening a dirt track and hardening its surface.

Israel has faced international uproar over its incursion, which it has justified on the grounds that a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria had "collapsed" with the end of the Assad regime. The troop movements have been accompanied by a massive IDF air offensive striking hundreds of military targets across Syria.

Yesterday, there was no sign that the movements of troops and armour were slowing. Instead, more armour and bulldozers were being moved along main roads heading towards the border zone.

Here on the Golan's high rocky plateau, the fall of Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, has sown complicated and contradictory emotions and created a startling new reality. After over a year of war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, during which deadly rocket attacks fell into the Golan villages, Israeli tanks and troops are on the move once again. This time they are heading east rather than north, driving deeper into Syrian territory.