Israel Fires at Protesters in Syrian Border Village, Wounding One

Syrian man waves a white flag as he approaches Israeli soldiers in Maariyah

Africa News with AP

The Israeli military on Friday said its forces shot and wounded a protester demonstrating against its army’s presence in a border village in southern Syria.

Maariyah is near the Israeli occupied Golan Height, just outside the demilitarised buffer zone established in a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two countries.

A group of people gathered in the village on Friday to demand an end to the Israeli military presence.

Residents say Israel has set up position in an abandoned Syrian army base there and are preventing farmers from accessing their fields.

“We are calling on the United Nations to remove the Israeli occupation from the Syrian points in Maariyah village, based on the 1974 agreement between Syria and the Israeli occupation," said village headman, Abdulraouf Abu Zalfa.

Since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last weekend, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syria.

In a move widely condemned internationally, it also sent troops into the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone, seizing a swathe of southern Syria.

Critics have accused Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria in the wake of Assad’s ouster to make a land grab.

Israel has described the move as a defensive and temporary measure to ensure the security of its northern border.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said Israel must halt its airstrikes on Syria, calling them violations of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Israel seized control of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it, a move not recognised by most of the international community

Its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Tuesday that Israeli forces will stay there until another arrangement is in place “that ensures Israel’s security”.