An old military vehicle can be seen positioned near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. IMAGE: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS
On July 1, the Israeli military dropped leaflets over the western countryside of Daraa in southern Syria warning Syrian Arab Army (SAA) service members against using devices and equipment which were recently supplied to them by Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The leaflets were dropped over an army base located a few kilometers away from the separation line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
درعا الريف الغربي
جيش الإسرائيلي يقلي منشورات ورقية على سرية عسكرية تابعة للنظام السوري pic.twitter.com/cPFGUf14KY— الفراتي العتيق (@alfuratyalatiqe) July 1, 2021
In the leaflets, the Israeli military warned SAA service members from collaborating with Haj Hashem, a commander of Hezbollah whose real name is Munir Ali Naeem Shaito.
“To the personnel of reconnaissance posts
Beware of your leaders exploiting you for the interests of Haj Hashem and his agents within the Syrian military.
The devices and equipment which Hezbollah supplied you with do not serve your interests, but rather the opposite! It will bring you more harm than good, as they see you as a cheap-blooded scapegoat.” the newly-dropped leaflets reads.
This was not the first such warning by the Israeli military. Similar leaflets with photos of Haj Hashem were dropped over al-Quneitra earlier this year.
The Israel military acted on its threats on several occasions in the last few months. on June 17, Israeli battle tanks shelled an SAA post in the vicinity of the town of al-Qahtaniyah in the southern al-Quneitra countryside. On June 18, an explosive device reportedly planted by Israeli commandos inside an observation post near the remains of al-Quneitra’s old hospital injured two Syrian soldiers.
Israel has been working to push Hezbollah and other Iranian-affiliated forces out from southern Syria for years now, to no avail.
