(17 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Majdal Shams, Golan Heights – 17 July 2025
1. Various of family members waiting to cross or waiting for the families to cross back into Majdal Shams from Syria
++ PARTIALLY COVERED BY 1 & 3-7 ++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Yasmin Johary, resident in Majdal Shams:
"I went into Hadar, I saw some friends of my mom’s, I went with my mom. I saw the sacred place for us Druze, I went in, I saw a lot of people from my town and today our relatives from Jaramana are supposed to come here but they (referring to Israeli border police) won’t let them cross so we are waiting."
3. Wide of fenced borders with truck inside
4. People looking down at fenced border
5. Members of the Israeli border police huddled together
6. People talking with Israeli border police
++ PARTIALLY COVERED BY 8-10 ++
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Yasmin Johary, resident in Majdal Shams:
"I was happy yesterday but now I am really upset about what is going on and the fact that they can’t come here and we can’t see them. I have never seen my relatives, my cousins I have never seen them in my life, and I would have liked to see them today and that can’t happen right now. I hope they can come in and I can see them, me, and my mom, all my uncles."
8. Wide of members of the Israeli border police with fence in background
9. More various of family members waiting
10. Various of assembling cement barrier walls
STORYLINE:
Members of the Druze community in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights gathered at the border with Syria Thursday morning waiting to be reunited with their families who crossed into Syria yesterday.
Yasmin Johary, a Druze who resides on the Israeli side, said she was happy to visit on Wednesday relatives and Druze sacred paces in Jarama, Syria. But her mood changed on Thursday as Israeli border police was preventing crossings from Syria. "I am really upset about what is going on and the fact that they can’t come here and we can’t see them. I have never seen my relatives, my cousins I have never seen them in my life, and I would have liked to see them today," she said.
Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel.
The announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze and push Islamic militants away from its border.
The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military.
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam.
More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria.
Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida.
Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, and in some cases attacked civilians.
Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, speaking on state television early Thursday, called the Druze an integral part of Syria and denounced Israel’s actions as sowing division.
AP video shot by Fernanda Pesce
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