Lucy Williamson
Appearances
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
An hour from Damascus, on a Syrian country road, we met Israel's army. Military vehicles and troops in full combat gear on the only route into Hadar village.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Riyad Zaydan lives in Hadar, one of several thousand residents from Syria's minority Druze community, watching Israeli military vehicles move around their village and armoured bulldozers working on a hillside above.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Earlier this week, Israel said it was seizing control of Syrian territory in a demilitarized zone established in a ceasefire agreement 50 years ago. Hadar sits right on the edge of this buffer zone. Parts of the village even jut inside it. Hadar's village head, Jaulat al-Tawil, pointed out the Golan Heights beyond it. Syrian territory that Israel occupied in 1967 and later unilaterally annexed.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Many residents in Hadar have Syrian relatives still living there. On Sunday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to double the population of Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, saying it was a response to what he called the new front in Syria. Some here worry that Israel wants to annex more Syrian land.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Israel says its actions in Syria are motivated by the threat from jihadist groups and its incursions would be limited and temporary. There are now Israeli bulldozers working on the hill behind me. And we've also seen Israeli forces at the entrance to the village. The Iran-backed groups that Israel was fighting here have been weakened by the fall of Assad.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Israel is taking advantage of this moment to extend its reach here and deal with new potential threats. A week after President Assad's regime fell, the sense of freedom is tinged with fatalism in Hadar.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Village head Jaulat Al-Tawil says dozens of men died defending the village from militia during Syria's war. His own son was killed by fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist militia that now runs Syria after sweeping President Bashar al-Assad from power. How does Mr Al-Tawil feel about HTS being in charge now?
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Syria's new Islamist leader, Ahmad al-Shara, has warned that Israel's actions risk unnecessary escalation, saying his country's interim government is not looking for conflict. Syria's long-awaited freedom, already overshadowed by talk of war.
Global News Podcast
South Korea's president impeached
Meze Military Air Base in Damascus was once a buffer between President Bashar al-Assad and rebel forces. Now the men who protected Assad have gone. The control room, scarred with bullet holes from their last stand. I just climbed to the top of the control tower. See across the whole airbase, deserted by President Assad's forces.
Global News Podcast
South Korea's president impeached
His old shoes, bombed out planes, live ammunition scattered across it. Israel has been systematically destroying the military equipment left by the Assad regime, worried about who might end up using it. Russian-made aircraft, Israeli bombs, militia backed by Turkey, Iran, the US. This was never just Syria's war, and outside powers still have a stake here.
Global News Podcast
South Korea's president impeached
On a roof inside the base, the new era is marked by a young fighter from the militia in charge here now, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, slashing at a portrait of Bashar al-Assad until it lies in tatters. Assad's fall has posed unanswered questions about Syria's future, but it's also left unanswered questions from the past.
Global News Podcast
South Korea's president impeached
The commander here, known as Abu Jarrah, shows us a prison complex where he says 400 women detainees were routinely raped by military intelligence. He takes us down to a room he says was used for torture and shows us a set of wires next to an electrical switchboard. Here they electrocuted prisoners, he tells me.
Global News Podcast
South Korea's president impeached
These electric cables, the guards put them on the prisoner's body and turned on the power. The prisoner loses his mind and confesses everything. The only thing more painful than finding your parent or child among the records here is not finding them at all. In the building next door, we found the mother of Kurdish prisoner Mahmoud Hussein searching for his face among the photos on the floor.
Global News Podcast
South Korea's president impeached
He's registered here, but we can't find him, she said. May God burn Assad's heart the way he burnt ours. Assad's regime was meticulous in documenting its brutality, but critical evidence here is being lost every day. The detail of what happened to individuals is often hard to find and the desperation of families is growing.