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'Let all of Syria burn': Jewish refugees welcome Assad's fall

miriw — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 07:00:31 +0000

As images emerged this week of Syrian prisoners being freed from Assad's notorious prisons, Syrian Jews who escaped to Israel decades ago were reminded of their own traumatic experiences under the regime. While welcoming its collapse, they say the documented atrocities barely scratch the surface of the systematic persecution they endured.

Even today, S. hesitates to tell everything. He's even afraid to identify himself. Years of terror under Assad's regime left deep psychological scars and persistent anxiety. His body also bears physical marks from the torture he endured while imprisoned in Syria. This week, Syrian Jewish emigrants in Israel welcomed the regime's fall, but their harsh memories from decades of tyranny under the Assad dynasty – both father and son – remain vivid.

"Life in Damascus was like living in a ghetto," S. recalls. "You couldn't leave the neighborhood without permission. For any purpose, you had to go to the Mukhabarat (intelligence) headquarters in the neighborhood and get approval. Assad Senior, may he rot in hell, made our lives miserable. Leaving the country was forbidden, especially for Jews. Anyone who spoke against the government was thrown in prison for decades, with no one knowing their fate. There was an atmosphere of constant fear."

Born in Damascus in 1947, he left at age 40. "I made aliyah through an unconventional route. We crossed the Syria-Turkey border on foot – 27 hours of walking without food or water, my family and another family, 17 people in total."

Did you believe you would live to see this regime fall?

"Honestly, no. After decades, you stop believing it could end like this."

Jewish Quarter of Damascus' Old City (Photo: Nathan Haswa)

The era that ended this week began in 1966 when Hafez al-Assad became defense minister in the Baath government. In 1971, he appointed himself president. After his death in 2000, his son Bashar inherited the position. This week, he fled with his family to Moscow as rebels advanced.

S. watched all the disturbing videos this week showing prisoners being freed from Syrian jails. "I know those places well – I'm a Prisoner of Zion. I spent a year and three months in Mezzeh prison."

At 22, married with a daughter, S. first attempted to cross the border into Lebanon. Near the border, the family was caught. "Jewish ID cards had 'Musawi' (follower of Moses) written in large red letters, impossible to miss. When we were caught, they told me to get out of the car. They took my wife and daughter out, removed the Muslim driver, and beat him severely. Blood was flowing everywhere. They released my wife and child but took me to prison. I have marks all over my body from that time – on my fingers, hands, feet, back. When I remember that period, everything goes dark," he says quietly.

When I apologize for perhaps stirring unwanted memories, he says the scars don't let him forget anyway. "I'm reminded of that time whenever I shower. Such torture in that prison, such torture. May their names and memory be erased."

Even with the slim possibility that it might now be possible, he has no interest in visiting where he grew up. "I can't look at Damascus – as far as I'm concerned, let all of Syria burn. I suffered there. I always told myself I didn't want my children to suffer like I did. When we left, we abandoned everything–- decades of work. I left my shop, my home. Within the Jewish community, we had it good, but with the regime? No, no, and no. I hope this regime disappears completely, but it still has roots there – this isn't over yet."

The peak of persecution against Jews in Syria under Assad came during wars with Israel. Arabs who fled Israel after the establishment of the Jewish state became particularly hostile neighbors. When the Six-Day War broke out, S. was visiting his fiancée's house. "We heard planes bombing; my brother-in-law and I went to look. We climbed onto the roof and watched the sky. The Palestinian neighbor went to neighborhood intelligence and reported us. Three or four armed intelligence officers came. We came down from the roof, and suddenly, they were pounding on the door, an iron door. They knocked the entire door down out of sheer hatred for us. The neighbor pointed us out. They took us, removed our belts from our pants, tied our hands behind our backs, and marched us through the streets – us and others they gathered from the neighborhood, 10 or 12 Jews. As we walked, all the Palestinian neighbors spat at us, cursed us, and then we faced interrogations at intelligence headquarters." The suspicion spread by neighbors was collaboration with Israeli fighters or paratroopers.

"In '73, when the war began, we were in synagogue," S. continues. "When they heard there was war with Israel, people left the synagogue and went home, afraid. You always knew regime officials could come whenever they wanted and do whatever they wanted to you."

He sighs deeply, hesitating whether to share another story. "I worked various jobs there. I was also in the burial society. Once, they came from intelligence on Friday night, saying, 'Come with us.' Where? 'To the cemetery.' What's at the cemetery on Friday night? 'We'll tell you later.' They took me from the synagogue on Friday night by car. We arrived there; they brought four coffins. And those coffins, I don't want to tell. Things have been hidden for almost 40 years. Secrets of 40 years. Still hard to tell."

What S. witnessed firsthand was the tragic story of four Jewish girls who were caught in March 1974 trying to escape Syria, were severely tortured, murdered, and their bodies mutilated. The event deeply shook the Jewish community.

A two-and-a-half-year-old prisoner

In his book "Escape from Damascus," attorney and CPA Jack Blanga describes the history of Syria's Jewish community and his family's escape across the border to Israel. Born in 1968, he arrived in Israel in 1980. He and his parents, Azur and Rachel Blanga, had a previous escape attempt that ended in capture and imprisonment. The father was imprisoned separately and endured hardships, while the mother was held with her son. In Israel, Blanga received a Prisoner of Zion certificate for the period he was detained with his mother when he was just two and a half years old. The detention conditions for the toddler, imprisoned with a group of women, were harsh. Water and food were barely provided, and hygiene was impossible. His release after several weeks came following intervention by international human rights organizations, who protested the imprisonment of a toddler.

In his book "Escape from Damascus," attorney and CPA Jack Blanga describes the history of Syria's Jewish community and his family's escape across the border to Israel (Photo: Courtesy) Courtesy

Blanga is disappointed that the dictator managed to escape: "It's unfortunate they couldn't get their hands on Assad this week. After the atrocities he committed against his own people, he deserves punishment." In his book, he describes how, as a child,d he watched his father being forced to vote in Syria's unfree presidential elections, with an intelligence officer making it crystal clear to his father that there was no avoiding entering the polling station, nor avoiding marking "yes" on the ballot to support Assad's continued rule.

The horrific images from Syrian prisons distributed this week are just the tip of the iceberg, he says. "What they showed is very little. Many people simply disappeared over the years. They dissolved them, with all that implies. For us as Jews who grew up there, and also for the State of Israel, the regime's fall is definitely good news."

In 1992, following American pressure, Syria allowed thousands of remaining Jews to leave. "Syria needed US aid then, and as part of the pressure applied, they allowed Jews to leave. Their property had to be left behind. Very few have remained in Syria since then. In the early period in Israel, we had few means, and integration wasn't easy," says Blanga, who later became vice president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Israel.

As an active community member here, do you have connections with the Jews who remained?

"A little, through social media. In recent days I've written to them but haven't received responses yet. These are elderly people, and it's hard to know if they're afraid or under pressure and, therefore, are not answering or if there's another reason. I hope everything is alright with them."

He, too, has only bad memories from his birthplace. "It's not easy growing up in a place you're forbidden to leave. We were prisoners there. You couldn't walk with a kippah in the street because they would throw stones at you. From the house where I lived in Harat al-Yahud, the Jewish Quarter in Damascus's Old City, we could see the Syrian Mount Hermon. It made me happy this week to know that our soldiers are now sitting there looking down at Damascus from above."

Following the Madrid Conference

Dr. Nathan Haswa, a family physician, was born in '69. "I was born in Damascus to my parents, Haim and Frida. The Jewish neighborhood then had about 4,000 people and 23 synagogues. The Jews were essentially hostages from '48 until '92. Even before Assad's regime, they were prevented from leaving the country, and under his rule, the situation worsened. Initially, Jews were prevented from buying homes and studying at university. After several years, these prohibitions were eased, partly due to pressure from Henry Kissinger. Jews were allowed to study and hold property. In '79, there was a possibility for the temporary exit of one family member in exchange for leaving a sum of money at the Mukhabarat offices."

For many families, the general desire to escape the harsh life in Syria was intertwined with decades-long forced separation from family members. In 1942, the Jewish Agency managed to smuggle about 1,100 children from Syria to Israel, but when the state was established, the border closed, and their families remained in Syria. Thus, they were separated for decades. "Every Jew in Damascus or Aleppo waited for an opportunity to leave. There were quite a few escape attempts through Lebanon and Turkey. Some were caught at the border," Haswa recounts.

Dr. Nathan Haswa, a family physician and Syrian refugee (Photo: Courtesy)

He remembers the shock that gripped the community after the horrific murder of the four girls in '74. "I was a child, but I remember we went on a kind of protest march toward government institutions in Damascus. The young girls wanted to leave the country also because they had no Jewish suitors. At one point, Kissinger asked Assad to allow 100 girls from Damascus to leave for New York. He only gave him 13."

Haswa studied medicine in Syria at Damascus University, graduating in 1991. He describes the international circumstances of the early nineties that led to change: "After the US fought Iraq and the Soviet Union collapsed, the Madrid Conference was held, and within its framework,k Israel requested that Jews be allowed to leave. President Bush Sr. asked to permit Jews to leave Syria and also to release five Jews who were imprisoned in Damascus for wanting to escape the country. They were in very bad condition. At that stage, President Assad was supposed to be 'elected' for the fourth time. Damascus Jews were asked to participate in a pro-Assad campaign in exchange for releasing three or four prisoners. I remember the propaganda signs that Damascus Jews were forced to write, including my brother Marco, saying Assad was our father, that he was a good leader."

"In '92, Jews were allowed to leave, on condition they wouldn't emigrate to Israel. A declaration was made in the Syrian parliament, where Assad said Syrian Jews were free and had full rights to leave, buy, and acquire. I remember my late father paying the government representative 250,000 liras and giving him expensive gifts – carpets and vases – to get a passport. The next stage was going to the US Embassy in Damascus. They gave visas immediately. We flew on an Air France night flight to the US, and when we landed, we were greeted by Syrian Jewish organizations and refugee organizations. I was 24. Many Jews had relatives in the US, and the celebrations at New York's airport were huge. The synagogues left behind were looted, and the houses were looted. In '94, Rabbi Albert (Abraham) Hamra, the Chief Rabbi of Syrian and Lebanese Jews, made aliyah, and Shimon Peres received him. In Syria, 300 or 400 people remained. They wrote then that the era of Damascus Jews' exile had ended."

Haswa watched images of the regime's collapse this week, but no sense of nostalgia arose in him. "The Jews who left Damascus never felt and do not feel that Syria is their homeland or that they belong to the Syrian people. Even if there's longing for school or the Jewish neighborhood, and even if, over the years, some American passport holders went to visit, the general feeling is that no one wants to remember this country. What is there to see? The neighborhood is destroyed, and the synagogues were looted. Also, those who seized power now are not peace-loving people. It's a divided and torn country. I don't foresee a particularly bright future for it. I saw atrocities on television; now they're hanging Assad regime people, acting like ISIS. There's no security there, no government. Thank God we're not there anymore."

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Operation 'Arrow of Bashan': PM sends warning to Syria

adin — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:34:51 +0000

The IDF concluded an extensive series of strikes throughout Syria on Tuesday and announced that the extensive strike to eliminate the threat from Syria would get the name Operation Arrow of Bashan, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning the Syrian rebels who seized power Israel would not tolerate aggression.

Video: The damage to the Syrian Navy after the Israeli strikes / Credit: Arab media

"Israel does not intend to interfere in Syria's internal affairs," Netanyahu declared Tuesday, revealing that he had "authorized the Israeli Air Force to bomb strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian military, so that these do not fall into the hands of the jihadists." The premier drew a historical parallel, noting it was "similar to what the Royal Air Force did when it bombed the Vichy regime's fleet that collaborated with the Nazis so that it wouldn't fall into their hands."

Military sources revealed that hundreds of strategic targets across Syrian territory were struck in an operation that had remained under strict operational secrecy. Simultaneously, the IDF chief of staff and the director of Shin Bet held crucial discussions in Egypt addressing regional security concerns, including ongoing hostage-related matters.

Netanyahu expressed openness to relations with Syria's future regime while laying down clear conditions. "If this regime allows Iran to re-establish itself in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah; or attacks us – we will respond with force and we will exact a heavy price," he warned, adding ominously that in that case, "what happened to the previous regime will happen to this regime as well."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "If the new regime in Syria allows Iran to re-establish itself, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah – we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price." pic.twitter.com/B5UTGCXoGN

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 10, 2024

Military officials indicate the operation was launched in response to rapidly evolving developments on the ground. While surveillance of rebel activity in the region had been ongoing, the acceleration of events demanded immediate action. The operation received approval from the IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi during a Saturday security assessment, leading to the swift deployment of forces.

The operation saw the deployment of 350 Israeli Air Force combat aircraft conducting multiple strike missions. Forces targeted 320 strategic assets spanning from Damascus to Tartus, including MiG-29 fighter jets, manufacturing facilities, ammunition storage sites, Scud missile battery, cruise missile systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft and attack helicopters, radar installations, and weapons storage facilities.

Strikes at the Lattakia port in western Syria. Photo credit: Arab media

Naval forces joined the campaign, executing strikes against advanced Syrian naval vessels at two coastal locations – Latakia and Minet el-Beida. Military sources confirmed that the targeted assets, which included dozens of sea-to-sea missiles capable of striking targets 50-62 miles away, had been under sustained intelligence monitoring for years.

In response to the Syrian developments, IDF forces have established positions at strategic locations along the buffer zone border. This deployment aims to safeguard Israeli civilians and prevent critical military capabilities from falling into unauthorized possession. During buffer zone operations, various weapons systems were discovered, with the military emphasizing its commitment to addressing any additional armaments found in the region. Officials stress that these actions are defensive in nature and do not constitute interference in Syria's internal conflict.

Addressing the Iranian dimension, military sources indicate that Tehran has experienced a substantial decline in its Syrian foothold, significantly diminishing its operational capabilities against Hezbollah. The IDF maintains its focus on the Syria-Lebanon border, emphasizing that any attempts to transfer weapons will trigger a military response.

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Netanyahu tours Syrian border, extends 'hand of peace'

miriw — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 14:31:20 +0000

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz visited Mount Bental in the Golan Heights at an observation point overlooking the Syrian border following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime. During the visit, they received a detailed briefing on developments along the Syrian border and the reinforcement of IDF forces in the area.

Netanyahu characterized the event as "a historic day in Middle East history," claiming that the regime's "collapse is the direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad's main supporters." He emphasized that the regime's collapse "set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny and its oppression."

Video: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Israel-Syria border / Credit: X/ IsraeliPM

Addressing the security situation, Netanyahu clarified, "We have to take action against possible threats. One of them is the collapse of the Separation of Forces Agreement from 1974 between Israel and Syria. This agreement held for 50 years. Last night, it collapsed. The Syrian army abandoned its positions. We gave the Israeli army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel. This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found."

Defense Minister Katz reinforced the security message, emphasizing Israel's determination to prevent a return to vulnerability along the border, promising to protect all Golan Heights communities – both Jewish and Druze.

While maintaining a firm security stance, Netanyahu delivered a message of openness. He recalled the Israeli field hospital that treated thousands of Syrians during the civil war, noting that hundreds of Syrian children were born in Israel. He extended "a hand of peace" to the Druze – "who are brothers of our Druze brothers in Israel" – as well as "to the Kurds, to the Christians, and to the Muslims who want to live in peace with Israel."

Netanyahu concluded by stating, "If we can establish neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that's our desire. But if we do not, we will do whatever it takes to defend the State of Israel and the border of Israel."

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Syrian rebels capture Hama as Assad forces retreat

adin — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 14:15:19 +0000

Syrian military command announced Thursday that its forces had been engaged in fierce battles against rebel groups along multiple fronts in the city of Hama in recent days.

Video: Intense fighting between rebels and Assad's forces in Syria's Hama. Credit: Arab media

The military acknowledged sustaining casualties in recent hours. In an unusual admission, the army confirmed that rebel forces had successfully breached Hama's defenses through several access points, despite suffering losses of their own. Subsequently, the Syrian military command announced its units would conduct a "strategic redeployment" of forces outside Hama.

According to reporting by Al-Araby al-Jadeed, citing three Iraqi sources including a senior Baghdad Foreign Ministry official, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has requested direct support from Iraq to prevent additional Syrian cities from falling to rebel forces.

The sources revealed that Assad conveyed this request during discussions with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The Iraqi parliamentary coalition subsequently convened to discuss the conversation in a session attended by al-Sudani.

Pro-Iranian news channel Al Mayadeen reported ongoing confrontations approximately 2.5 miles northwest of Hama, with army reinforcements rushing to the area to counter the rebel advance. Concurrent clashes erupted 9.3 miles from Salamiyah, south of Hama. Rebel forces have deployed drones and mortar shells in their offensive against city districts.

Syrian state media swiftly countered reports of rebel advances, asserting that "all attempts to breach the Hama front have failed." However, a humanitarian crisis looms as pharmaceutical production facilities have ceased operations, particularly affecting displaced populations who previously fled from Aleppo.

Sources speaking to AlHadath news channel reported extensive Israeli strikes targeting weapons storage facilities in the northern Damascus area during the past 24 hours.

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Russian-backed forces preparing to resume offensive, Syrian rebels say

Taliah Oz — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 06:48:37 +0000

Syrian rebel fighters on Wednesday said Russian-backed forces were amassing troops in preparation for resuming a five-month offensive in northwestern Syria after the second day of raids by jets which are believed to be Russian and threatened to end a fragile ceasefire.

The jets that flew overnight at high altitudes struck a village near Kafr Takharim and an area near the town of Darkush, both in rural areas in western Idlib province, two opposition sources and a resident in the area said.

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The overnight bombing raid came hours after airstrikes hit a part of the northwest for the first time since the truce was declared 11 days ago, according to activists and a monitor. Moscow denied conducting the first strikes.

Russia said the Syrian government unilaterally agreed to a truce on Aug. 31 in opposition-controlled Idlib, where a "de-escalation zone" was brokered two years ago between Russia and Turkey.

Since then, there has been an end to the intense airstrikes by Russian and Syrian warplanes that since late April had accompanied the Russian-backed ground offensive to retake the last rebel bastion.

The Syrian army, aided by Iran-backed militias, also pounded several towns in southern Idlib, including Kafr Sejnah and Hizareen, in what the opposition says has been a persistent pattern of shelling of rebel-held areas despite the truce deal.

"Artillery shelling that has targeted villages of southern Idlib has not stopped since the alleged ceasefire," Mohammad Rashid, spokesman for the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group said.

The rebel official said jets believed to be Russian also hit for the second time a commanding height known as Kabaneh in the mountainous province of Latakia where rebels have for months withstood intense aerial bombing, after a similar raid on Tuesday.

Russian troops amassing

Rebels say that the Russian-led alliance that brings together elite army units and Iranian-backed militias was using the lull in fighting to reorganize their forces.

A week before the ceasefire, Moscow and its allies captured the strategic town of Khan Sheihkoun in the most significant advance against rebels since the start of the military offensive.

The opposition says new reinforcements from Russian special forces, Iranian-backed militias, and elite Syrian army units were arriving daily and amassing on front lines in southern Idlib.

Several attempts by small crack units of Russian forces and Kremlin-linked private military contractors had been repelled in the last week, rebels say.

"The amassing of Iranian militias and Russian ground troops are all signals that something is being prepared for a new offensive," Major Youssef Hamoud, a spokesman of the Turkey-backed National Army, a coalition of mainstream rebel factions, said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in August that Russian forces were fighting on the ground in Idlib to defeat militant Islamist groups Moscow and its Syrian ally blame for violating the de-escalation arrangement reached with Ankara.

The deployment of Russian special forces and Iranian-backed forces succeeded in breaking months of stalemate on the front lines, where rebels had until then been holding back the army from major advances, Western intelligence sources say.

The capture of Khan Sheikhoun brought Moscow closer to regaining control over two of Syria's most important pre-war highways from Aleppo to Hama and Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast.

"The goals that Russia has set have still not been achieved, which is taking the highways and trying to restore the regime's pre-war commercial arteries," Hamoud said.

The northwest offensive, in which non-governmental organizations and rights groups have accused the Russian-led alliance of using "scorched earth" bombing tactics, has prompted warnings by the United Nations and aid agencies of a new humanitarian crisis.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed while over a half a million people have been uprooted from villages and towns that now lay in ruins and sought shelter at the border with Turkey.

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Rebels agree to surrender frontier with Israel to Syrian army

website — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 21:00:00 +0000

Syrian rebels agreed to surrender their last pockets of control in southwest Quneitra province to the government, state media reported Thursday, making way for Damascus to re-establish its authority along the Israeli frontier.

The deal, confirmed in its general outlines by a monitoring group and opposition activists in Quneitra, will put the Syrian government face-to-face with Israel along most of its southern frontier for the first time since 2011, when an uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule swept throughout Syria.

Israel has refrained from taking sides in Syria's seven-year-long civil war, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated he does not object to the government's return to southwest Syria – as long as Iran and its regional proxy, Hezbollah, stay clear of the border.

Israel has also said it would demand strict adherence to the 1974 disengagement deal with the Syrian army on the Golan, threatening a "harsh response" to any attempt by Syrian forces to deploy in that zone. The deal, concluded after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, created a buffer zone patrolled by the U.N. Disengagement and Observer Force.

Details of the deal sent by the rebel source included a provision that Russian military police would accompany the same two Syrian army brigades "to the cease-fire line and the demilitarized zone, according to the 1974 agreement."

The provisions did not elaborate on any implications of the deployment of military units on the 1974 agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki that both had agreed to work together to help ensure Israel's security.

Putin, Assad's most powerful ally, cited the need to restore the situation along the Golan borders to the state that prevailed before the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011.

A fleet of buses reached Quneitra on Thursday night to pick up fighters, activists and other residents who refuse to accept the terms of surrender, and evacuate them to rebel-held areas in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

An affiliate of the Islamic State group continues to hold a sliver of the frontier. The group is not party to the agreement between the government and rebels.

Backed by Russian air power and unopposed by Assad's foreign adversaries, government forces have swept through southwestern Syria in the last month in one of the swiftest campaigns of the war, forcing surrender on massively outgunned rebels.

The campaign, which has already restored Assad's control over a critical portion of the frontier with Jordan, marks another milestone in his efforts to recover control of the country.

Echoing surrender terms imposed on rebels elsewhere, opposition fighters agreed to give up heavy and medium-sized weapons. Those wishing to stay in the area will "settle" their status with the state, meaning accepting a return of its rule.

Those who reject the deal will be given safe passage out to the opposition-held province of Idlib in the northwest, according to terms that were also reported by a military news outlet run by Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and is fighting in Syria in support of Assad.

Once the southwestern campaign is finished, Assad's focus is likely to turn to the two remaining areas outside his grasp.

These are the rebel-held northwest, where the presence of Turkish forces will complicate any military campaign, and large areas of the northeast and east that are held by Kurdish-led militias, supported by 2,000 U.S. troops on the ground.

Delegations from the government and rebels met several times over the last two days to negotiate the terms of surrender, said opposition activist and photographer Moaz al-Assaad.

Thousands of residents – including rebel fighters, media activists, medical workers and civilians – may be heading to north Syria instead of staying behind in Quneitra, according to al-Assaad.

The U.N. and human rights organizations have condemned such evacuations as forced displacement. Few who have left are expecting to be able to return to their homes in the near-term.

Earlier on Thursday, a fleet of buses helped evacuate the last remaining residents from Shiite, pro-government villages in northern Syria that endured three years of rebel siege, to government territory in the nearby Aleppo province.

Some 7,000 people were evacuated from Foua and Kfraya, according to state media.

The transfers, which have become a fixture of the war's later stages, are a conspicuous marker of the titanic shifts in Syria's demographics.

Waves of violence against civilians and unforgiving terms of surrender have resulted in the reassortment of the Syrian population. The country's majority Sunni population has been pushed out of the cities and, disproportionately, into camps and exile, while minorities have moved closer to the centers of government control.

The government was expected to release 1,500 militants and opposition activists from its jails in exchange for the Foua and Kfraya evacuations, according to Ahmed el-Shiekho, an official for the Syrian Civil Defense, a search-and-rescue group aligned with the opposition.

But it only released 200, el-Sheikho said, including many who were only picked up in the last few months for minor criminal offenses – prisoners with no connection to the ongoing political turmoil.

In southern Syria, rebels have been powerless to stop a month of government advances through southwest Syria's Daraa and Quneitra provinces, facilitated by a relentless Russian aerial campaign against towns and villages held by the opposition.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced by the fighting, and the U.N.'s children's agency, UNICEF, appealed for access to reach some 55,000 children in need of humanitarian assistance in Quneitra.

Earlier this week, dozens of Syrians marched toward the frontier, pleading for help as government forces, backed by Russia, stepped up airstrikes on Quneitra. Israel has quietly treated thousands of displaced Syrians for wounds and illnesses over the years.

On Thursday, the IDF announced that its 210th Division carried out six special missions this week to provide humanitarian aid to Syrians in refugee camps on the Golan Heights. The aid included 72 tons of food, 70 tents, 9,000 liters (2,400 gallons) of gasoline, flats of medicine and medical supplies, as well as clothes and toys.

"The IDF is continuing to help the Syrians in the camps set up on the Syrian Golan Heights," the military said.

Many of those trapped by the Syrian government's advances were hoping for relief from Israel, or some sort of a safe zone there, said Areej Ghabash, a local health worker in Quneitra.

"In truth, we have more faith in Israel than the [Syrian] government," she said, adding she would leave Quneitra herself rather than surrender to the authorities.

Al-Assaad said a prisoner exchange involving an al-Qaida-linked group fighting alongside the rebels in Quneitra was still to be negotiated before evacuations could start.

The Syrian leader, with support from Russia and Iran, has all but crushed the revolt after seven years of destructive war that has taken the lives of more than 400,000 Syrians and displaced half the country's population. Nearly 6 million Syrians – or roughly a quarter of the country's pre-war population – are now refugees outside their own country.

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