If you walk an hour from Damascus, on a country road you enter the Syrian village of Hadar, we meet the Israeli army.
Two military vehicles and several soldiers in full combat gear are at an unexpected checkpoint – a foreign authority in a country celebrating its independence. They waved us past.
It was evidence of Israel’s incursion into Syrian territory – a temporary seizure of a UN-monitored safe zone, established in a ceasefire agreement 50 years ago.
“Maybe they will leave, maybe they will stay, maybe they will make the area safe and then leave,” said Riyad Zaidan, who lives in Hadari. “We want to hope, but we will have to wait and see.”
The chief of the village, Jawdat al-Tawil, pointed to the Golan Heights area that Israel occupied in 1967, clearly visible in the Hadar corridors.
Many residents here have relatives who still live there.
Now, they see Israeli forces often surrounding their village, parts of them entering the demilitarized zone. On the slope above, Israeli tractors can be seen working on the hill.
A week after President Assad’s regime fell, the sense of freedom here is dying.
Jawdat al-Tawil proudly told me how the village had defended itself against militia groups during the Syrian civil war, and showed me pictures of dozens of men who died doing so.
“We don’t allow anyone to break the law in our world,” he said. “[But] Israel is a country – we cannot resist it. We used to stand against each other, but Israel has great power.”
The IDF has released photos of soldiers operating in Syria [IDF]
Since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes on military targets across Syria.
And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced new plans to double the number of Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, saying the move was necessary because of a “new beginning” opening up in Syria.
Speaking before the launch of the plan, Syria’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa warned that Israeli forces are at risk of unnecessary escalation in the region and said his administration does not want to clash with Israel.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said its actions were necessary due to threats posed by jihadist groups operating on the de-escalation front in Syria, describing its military intervention there as “limited and temporary”.
The residents of Hadar are mainly members of the Druze community – a compact, ignorant group that broke away from Shia Islam centuries ago.
When Israel occupied part of the Golan Heights in the 1967 war, and later annexed it, some of the Druze there chose to remain and take Israeli citizenship.
Al-Sharaa, the leader of the Syrian militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that forced President Assad to step down this month, has his family in the Golan Heights.
Some here on the side controlled by Syria fear that Israel’s plan is to take more territory for itself.
For years, Israel has been fighting Iran-backed militias that support Assad. The border region is an important arms supply route between Tehran and the proxy forces it maintains, including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
Assad’s fall has left those groups – and Iran – weakened. But Israel has since stepped up its military campaign, using this political opportunity to expand its reach.
It has also targeted military weapons left behind by Assad’s forces at bases across the country, worried about who might end up using them in the future.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said on Sunday that “existing dangers” to Israel still exist, and that recent events in Syria have increased the threat, “despite the limited visibility that the rebel leaders are showing”.
Marginalized by the Assad regime, and targeted as infidels by Sunni jihadist groups such as HTS, Syria’s Druze are more tolerant of Israel than many other communities here.
The area controlled by Israel is seen in the houses of Hadar [BBC]
The village used to fight Iran-backed groups that Israel sees as a threat here, but Jawdat al-Tawil told me that alliances in the area are changing, and that he was now talking to these groups about reaching an agreement.
Syria is not a place where people rely on only one friend, or fight only one enemy.
“We just need peace,” said resident Riyad Zaidan. “We’ve had enough war, enough blood, enough hard life – we have to stop.”
Religious minorities such as the Druze suffered under Assad. The new leaders of the country from HTS promised tolerance and respect for the different races and religions of Syria.
But eight years ago the group was still allied with jihadist groups around the world such as al-Qaeda.
It was when HTS broke away from al-Qaeda in 2016 that Jawdat al-Tawil’s son, Abdo, was killed by their forces on the outskirts of Hadar, while fighting for the Syrian Army.
He showed me the road where 30-year-old Abdo died and I asked how he felt about HTS controlling Syria now.
“In the beginning they were gangsters [Assad]and they have come into power,” he said. They must rule with justice, provide security and guarantee people’s rights.
“At the moment it is not clear whether they have changed,” he said. “I hope so.”
Additional reporting by Yousef Shomali, Charlotte Scarr and Mayar Mohanna
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