’Israeli’ Facilitation Aimed at Changing Reality in Quneitra

Hussein Mortada

The nature of the offensive by armed groups - linked to the Zionist entity - in southern Syria is clear, because since the advance of the Syrian army in the south-western Damascus countryside and the northern Daraa countryside, and the dismantling of what the "Israeli" entity called the "good wall", planning began for this attack to compensate for the losses suffered by the enemy entity ["Israel"], that came in the form of the [defeats] of the armed groups.

This time around the town of Hodr in the northern Quneitra countryside was the latest target of the "Moq" operations room in Jordan, in addition to the "Israeli" military intelligence "Aman", whereby armed groups part of the so-called "Hermon Army" launched a fierce attack on the town from three different fronts.

The first front was the attack on the Red Hills region, and from the town and farms of Beit Jan in then north of Hodr. The next was the Jabatha al-Khashab front which lies on the southern, Arab side of the town of Hodr. Simultaneously, there was an expansion of the area of fighting in order to distract the Syrian army with side operations.

These groups pounded the cities of Khan Arnab, al-Ba'ath, and Jebba, with rockets and mortar shells. In addition, they attempted to silence Syrian artillery - which stepped in to support the army and national defense in Hodr - and so the armed groups targeted [Syrian artillery] in Tal al-Sha'ar, Tal al-Bazaq, and Tal al-Kuroom. Furthermore, they tried to distract the Syrian army's defenses and prevent it from supporting the people of the town, by attacking Jebba forest.

The attack on the town of Hodr and the Red Hills came after the failure of all attempts by the militants to progress towards the al-Ta'lah and western as-Suwayda countryside. These offensives coincided with frenzy in the "Israeli" entity's media, regarding the readiness of ‘Israel' - so they claimed - to protect the people of those areas from those armed groups.

At the same time, the "Israeli" entity and the Moq operations room, offered full intelligence support for these groups in order to advance towards the Red Hills. This also allowed the gunmen to progress towards the observatory in the occupied Golan Heights in order to target the town of Hodr with 23 mm machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as to target the ambushes set by the National Defense Forces in the Hodr orchards, enabling the militants present in Jabatha al-Khashab to advance in those orchards.

Furthermore, staff at the field hospital belonging to ‘Aman' went on high alert. They eventually received dozens of wounded militants, injured in the battles of the Red Hills and Hodr forests.

Despite this escalation, the armed groups have not been able to advance towards the town of Hodr, in conjunction with the arrival of support from the Syrian army to the vicinity of the town, and the mobilization of national defense groups, leading to the foiling of more than one attack towards the town from the al-Haimareyyeh front.

At the same time, the army artillery has not ceased targeting militants in Jabatha al-Khashab, Beit Jin, and the Red Hills, while the Syrian air force stepped in and carried out more than 20 air raids, leading to the killing of a number of militants from the "al-Nusra Front" [al-Qaeda's branch in Syria].

All of this helped prevent the armed groups from achieving their goal, which boils down to attempting to open up the way for the militants towards Mount Hermon in the north, all the way to the border with Jordan in the south. This would mean connecting the regions of eastern and southern Quneitra countryside, the Daraa countryside, and the southern Damascus Countryside, with Lebanon's western Bekaa, thus paving the way for the separation of the Quneitra countryside from the Damascus countryside, by placing the Peace Highway - which connects the capital to Quneitra - under the threat of the militants.

The armed groups that attacked the town of Hodr, coordinated their pre-planned offensive with the media frenzy in the "Israeli" entity regarding the issue of protecting the people of Hodr. The attack was also accompanied by the arrival of Ayoob Kara - a Deputy Minister in the Netanyahu government and a member of the Knesset for the Likud - to the barbed-wire fence bordering the liberated region of Quneitra, at a time when the occupation entity began setting up a field hospital in the region of Saheta, under the pretext of treating the wounded people of Hodr.

However, and despite the sniper and mortar fire, the steadfast people that have remained in their homes assured al-Ahed News that "the sons of the town will resist the militants of ‘al-Nusra' as if they are resisting the "Israeli" entity, and that they will target any infiltration of the barbed-wire fence by the ‘"Israeli" entity, just as they are targeting the ‘al-Nusra Front' in Hodr forest".

They also clarified that "what is being broadcasted by the enemy media regarding the readiness of the enemy to protect the people of Hodr, falls under various pretexts, including deception, as the armed groups that are attacking Hodr are the same groups that are receiving aid from the entity, so what contradiction is this?", stressing that the people of Hodr will not accept any intervention by the entity, and will not be meagre in their response to it [the enemy], in support of the Syrian army and the allied forces by its side.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team