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WORLD NEWS Friday 20 July 2018
Syria rebels agree to surrender frontier with Israel

By PHILIP ISSA The government was ex-
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels pected to release 1,500 mil-
agreed to surrender their itants and opposition activ-
last pockets of control in ists from its jails in exchange
southwest Quneitra prov- for the Foua and Kfraya
ince to the government, evacuations, according to
state media reported Thurs- Ahmed el-Shiekho, an offi-
day, making way for Da- cial for the Syrian Civil De-
mascus to re-establish its fense, a search-and-rescue
authority along the Israeli group aligned with the op-
frontier. position.
The deal, confirmed in its But it only released 200,
general outlines by a moni- el-Sheikho said, includ-
toring group and opposi- ing many who were only
tion activists in Quneitra, will picked up in the last few
put the Syrian government months for minor criminal
face-to-face with Israel offenses — prisoners with
along most of its frontier no connection to the on-
for the first time since 2011, going political turmoil.
when an uprising against In southern Syria, rebels
President Bashar Assad's have been powerless to
rule swept through Syria. stop a month of govern-
A fleet of buses reached In this photo a convoy of ambulances carry Syrian citizens evacuated from two pro-government ment advances through
Quneitra on Thursday night villages of Kfarya and Foua, in Syria, early Thursday, July 19, 2018. southwest Syria's Daraa
to pick up fighters, activists Associated Press and Quneitra provinces,
and other residents who re- facilitated by a relentless
fuse to accept the terms of taking sides in Syria's seven- be heading to north Syria evacuated from Foua and Russian aerial campaign
surrender, and evacuate year-long civil war, and instead of staying behind Kfraya, according to state against towns and villages
them to rebel-held areas Prime Minister Benjamin in Quneitra, according to media. held by the opposition.
in northern Syria, the Syr- Netanyahu has indicated al-Assaad. The transfers — which have Tens of thousands of civil-
ian Observatory for Human he does not object to the The U.N. and human rights become a fixture of the ians have been displaced
Rights monitoring group government's return to organizations have con- war's later stages — are a by the fighting, and the
said. southwest Syria — as long demned such evacuations conspicuous marker of the U.N.'s children's agency,
An affiliate of the Islamic as Israel's archenemies Iran as forced displacement. titanic shifts in Syria's demo- UNICEF, appealed for ac-
State group continues to and the Lebanese militant Few who have left are ex- graphics. cess to reach some 55,000
hold a sliver of the frontier. group Hezbollah stay clear pecting to be able to re- Waves of violence against children in need of humani-
The group is not party to of the frontier. turn to their homes in the civilians and unforgiving tarian assistance in Qunei-
the agreement between Delegations from the gov- near-term. terms of surrender have tra.
the government and reb- ernment and rebels met Earlier on Thursday, a fleet resulted in the reassort- Earlier this week, dozens of
els. several times over the last of buses helped evacuate ment of the Syrian popula- Syrians marched toward
Syria and Israel fought two two days to negotiate the the last remaining residents tion. The country's majority the frontier, pleading for
wars over their shared bor- terms of surrender, said op- from Shiite, pro-govern- Sunni population has been help as government forces,
der, in 1967 and 1973, with position activist and pho- ment villages in northern pushed out of the cities backed by Russia, stepped
Israel occupying the Go- tographer Moaz al-Assaad. Syria that endured three and, disproportionately, up airstrikes on Quneitra.
lan Heights in the Quneitra Thousands of residents — in- years of rebel siege, to into camps and exile, while Israel has quietly treated
province in the former con- cluding rebel fighters, me- government territory in the minorities have moved thousands of displaced Syr-
frontation. dia activists, medical work- nearby Aleppo province. closer to the centers of ians for wounds and illness-
But Israel has refrained from ers and civilians — may Some 7,000 people were government control. es over the years.q