As international attention continues to be focused on tensions with Iran, the Israeli government has taken a further step in another key direction: occupation. With little media fanfare, it has approved a plan of 307 million euros to strengthen the Israeli presence in settlements in the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory that the international community continues to consider occupied by Israel.The project, planned for the period 2026-2030, aims to turn Katzrin, an Israeli settlement in the west, into "the first city of the Golan," in the words of Ze'ev Elkin, a member of the Ministry of Finance. According to various Israeli media, the plan includes investments in infrastructure, public services —such as hospitals and veterinary centers—, universities, and housing. All with a clear objective: to attract at least 3,000 Israeli families to the territory.The announcement came after a meeting in Jerusalem between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and local Golan leaders, such as Yehuda Dua and Uri Kellner. The message was unequivocal: the government not only maintains its commitment to settlements but wants to intensify it. On numerous occasions, Netanyahu has stated that the Golan will remain under Israeli control, a statement that clashes with international law. The Golan Heights have been recognized as territory occupied by Israel since 1967, after the Six-Day War, and were formally annexed in 1981."As the logic of Israel's colonial project is to obtain the land without the indigenous population, the Golan Heights are considered a successful model of expropriation and expansion, unlike the West Bank and Gaza," explains to ARA Neve Gordon, an Israeli academic specializing in politics, human rights, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a professor at Queen Mary University of London.According to him, the key lies in 1967: "The ethnic cleansing was almost complete and, as a result, there has been no sustained resistance to Israeli rule. About 130,000 Syrians fled and could not return, and only about 5,000 remained. This allowed the Golan to be integrated into both domestic law and the Israeli public imagination." The result is that, today, for a large majority of Israeli Jews —more than 90%, according to Gordon— the Golan is already part of Israel. This is a clear contrast with the West Bank, where the Palestinian presence has prevented full integration. A pattern of annexation

The expansion of settlements in the Golan is not an exception, but part of a pattern. The settlement policy deployed there presents clear parallels with what has been happening for decades in the West Bank: a combination of civilian presence and state support to consolidate control over disputed territories, always under the umbrella of security.In the West Bank, more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live today in settlements scattered throughout the territory. And the pace does not stop. In recent weeks, the government has approved 34 new settlements, in a decision that, according to the Israeli organization Peace Now, was made "secretly".Israeli media, such as Channel 24 or the newspaper Haaretz, have described the decision as the largest number of settlements ever approved in a single government session. According to this information, nine of the 34 approved settlements are existing outposts (settlements that are illegal even under Israeli law, as they are built without government authorization) which will now be retroactively legalized, while the rest have not yet been built. In total, the plan includes 20 new settlements, nine outposts, two expansions, and three nuclei that will become independent from existing settlements. Settlements and outposts vary in size, and can range from a single dwelling to multi-story building complexes.“Outposts are like settlements: an instrument of expropriation and expansion —describes Gordon—. Outposts, like settlements, are illegal under international law, but they were introduced just over two decades ago, after a US-led settlement freeze, and have ended up functioning as a tool to legitimize formal settlements: they are presented as their illegal version, when in reality both are,” he adds.The phenomenon, far from being isolated, is part of a sustained policy over time. Since 1967, settlements have been a central piece of Israeli strategy, but under Netanyahu's governments their expansion has accelerated. Israeli organizations such as ACLED or B’Tselem and analysis centers such as Chatham House warn of a simultaneous increase in settlements, land confiscations, and settler violence, especially since the start of the offensive in Gaza.Since the arrival of the current government, 103 new settlements have been approved, adding to the 127 already existing. If the legalization of outposts is added, the total in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has risen from 141 in 2022 to 210 currently, according to data cited by Al-Jazeera. In parallel, the government has allocated 119 million euros to the Ministry of Settlements and National Missions, the body responsible for authorizing these implantations.

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In Damascus, the memory of war is not abstract; it is found in half-rebuilt buildings, in empty neighborhoods that have not yet been able to regain their former inhabitants, in shops that open every morning with the hope that the economy will improve. It also filters into daily conversations, where the conflict is no longer evoked as a past event, but as a possibility that could emerge from any corner.

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The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, assures that 80% of the more than 900,000 Syrian citizens residing in Germany will have to return to their country in the next three years. He stated this at a meeting with the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Shara, in Berlin. According to the chancellor, the Syrian leader also wishes this.

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The German government rolled out the red carpet in Berlin this Monday to receive the controversial Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, one year and three months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime at the end of 2024. While Al-Sharaa sought to attract German investments and greater international political recognition with this visit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wanted to use the meeting to pressure Damascus to facilitate the accelerated repatriation of Syrian refugees living in Germany. And Merz got straight to the point with his wishes: the chancellor has asked that 80% of the more than 900,000 Syrians currently living in Germany return to their country of origin within three years, a decade after the 2015 migration crisis.

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The summit of the international coalition against the Islamic State, held this week in Riyadh, has left clear signs of a political change. Syria returns to the international tableWith the explicit support of Saudi Arabia and the United States, Damascus, after years of isolation, without Assad (the Syrian president overthrown a year ago who had tolerated the growth of the Islamic State in areas controlled by rebels and Kurds), has become a direct interlocutor in the fight against the Islamic State. And in this shift, the Kurds, who until now have been central partners in the Western strategy on the ground, are relegated to a secondary role. The meeting, co-chaired by the Saudi kingdom and the US, brought together representatives from the more than 80 member countries of the coalition. The Syrian presence was symbolic: it is a recognition of its active participation in the new coordination framework. With the presence of Tom Barrack, the US special envoy, the meeting concluded that the new plan relies on Syrian state institutions. Washington and Riyadh believe that, after more than a decade of war and sanctions, any lasting strategy against the Islamic State requires working with Damascus. At the summit, the US discourse focused on the need to normalize operational channels with the Syrian government to avoid security vacuums. Barrack argued that the current phase demands strengthening state and regional cooperation rather than relying exclusively on local armed actors; in other words, Washington is adjusting its priorities. This adjustment directly affects the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which for years has been the coalition's main ally in the northeast of the country. The SDF has spearheaded the offensive against the Islamic State's territorial caliphate and has paid a heavy human cost. They have controlled prisons holding thousands of jihadist fighters and administered camps like Al-Hol, where tens of thousands of relatives of group members are held. Their role has been crucial.

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For a decade, the Euphrates River served as an invisible border within Syria. In the east, a region under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by Kurdish militias, had built an autonomy de facto With US support and under the central justification of the war against the Islamic State (Daesh). In the west, Damascus awaited its opportunity to return. At the beginning of this year, the line was broken. Government forces crossed the river, and the territorial map of the northeast began to unravel.

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The Hope League. Not all projects are named in a way that accurately reflects their underlying idea, but in this case, the name is perfectly chosen. The Hope League It's a project that uses football to unite the neighbors of northern Syria and Iraq, where years of war and religious fanaticism have caused so much damage. "In cities like Raqqa, we've managed to get members of families with ISIS militants to participate in the project, along with communities persecuted by ISIS," explains former Barça player Oleguer Presas. Chasing a ball, boys and girls from a region where hatred between communities and religions has left thousands dead, were creating hope. But in recent weeks, hatred has overtaken their dreams. The Syrian government's military escalation against the Kurdish autonomous region has changed everything.

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Kobani, the Kurdish city that in 2014 became a global symbol of resistance against the Islamic State, is now experiencing another tragedy: daily survival under siege and extreme cold. Its population has been cut off from the world for six days. Surrounded by Turkey to the north and by Syrian government forces to the south, east, and west, the city has no water or electricity because the dam that supplies it is under the control of the Damascus government. Hospitals are on the verge of collapse, and schools and city squares have been converted into makeshift shelters. Half a million civilians are at risk of dying from hunger, disease, or cold if nothing is done.

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The ceasefire announced this Sunday in northeastern Syria puts an end, in theory, to the most intense fighting recorded. since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regimeBut it doesn't usher in a lasting peace. Above all, it marks the end. of a decade of Kurdish autonomy in the east of the country and the gradual reimposition of Damascus's authority over territory that had slipped from its control since 2012.

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The United States has launched a large-scale attack tonight against Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria. as reported by the Army Central Command (Centcom). US President Donald Trump ordered the strikes on Saturday in retaliation for the deadly ISIS attack on US troops in Syria on December 13. Jordan has confirmed its participation in the attack.

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Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the southern suburbs of Damascus remain trapped in a suspended time. In neighborhoods like Hajar al-Aswad, Yarmouk, and the Tishreen Street axis, the war no longer dictates daily life, but its mark continues to determine who can return, how, and under what conditions. The violence has stopped, but normality has not.

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Every forgotten photo on a wall, every garment piled in empty cells, every voice repeating the name of a disappeared person, serves as a reminder that Syria remains marked by absences. A year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the liberation of the prisons opened a chapter of hope, but also It exposed the magnitude of the crimes of the overthrown regime.Justice, recognition, and reparations still seem distant.

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Dawn slowly breaks over Damascus, filtering through old buildings and balconies adorned with garlands of blackened wires. The city awakens to the whine of generators and the aroma of freshly baked bread from ovens that have been running at half capacity for some time. One year after the fall of Bashar al-AssadThe country lives trapped in a kind of limbo. There is neither war nor peace. Neither total ruin nor recovery. There is only a suspended territory where certainties dissolve as soon as they are uttered.

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A flower like pink lipstick on a bare face. That's how the color of the Damask rose stands out when it blooms in the middle of the desert. In Qaldoun al-Marah—or simply Al-Marah—a town of five thousand inhabitants fifty kilometers north of Damascus, one of the oldest varieties in the world is cultivated between mid-May and early June: the "queen of roses," as the Bitar family calls it. This family is one of the main growers of the Damask rose in Syria. Its intense, almost intoxicating perfume seems to stop time. Here, where the earth is hard and the sky is almost never cloudy, is where it "grows best," they say.

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Ahmed Ekzayez (Idlib, 1983) probably holds one of the most challenging positions in the world: he is Syria's Deputy Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management. Until just over a year ago, he was the program director for the White Helmets, the volunteer organization that, during the fourteen-year offensive by Bashar al-Assad's regime against opposition movements, rescued tens of thousands of people from under the rubble in cities devastated by bombing. Now he does the same work, but from within the new government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, which has assumed control of the country with an iron fist. The Deputy Minister visited Barcelona to participate in a seminar on disasters and resilience, organized by the Union for the Mediterranean.

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Israel has killed thirteen people, including two children, and wounded dozens more in an operation carried out early this morning in southern Syria. The attack took place yesterday in Beit Jinn, a Druze village on the slopes of Mount Hermon, on the border between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, when an Israeli unit attempted to arrest three young men from the village. According to local sources, the soldiers were surrounded after some armed residents tried to prevent the arrest, prompting the unit to request air cover. Airstrikes and the use of drones facilitated their withdrawal but increased the number of casualties and forced the immediate displacement of families to areas considered safer. Israel claimed that the young men were part of a cell involved in recent attacks against civilians in the north of the country, but Damascus rejected this version and accused Israel of carrying out an unprovoked incursion, which it called a war crime. The new Syrian government has insisted that the area does not host Shiite militias or foreign groups, and has denounced Israel for taking advantage of the instability following the fall of Assad to expand its military reach beyond the 1974 demilitarized zone. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad the rise to power of Ahmed al-SharaaSouthern Syria lives in a precarious balance. Although the government has regained administrative control over most of the country, regions like Quneitra and rural areas west of Damascus maintain an uneven state presence. The Druze communities, which adopted an ambivalent stance during the war, continue to organize their security through local self-defense networks created to fill institutional gaps.

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"Do you see anything in that house?" That's the question Commander Kobani asks. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) He lets go of us as we approach a pair of isolated houses in the middle of the desert. There's no one on the entire road between us. We stop the car, and suddenly two soldiers, having changed their camouflage, appear and tell us to go inside. Inside, a larger group, perfectly equipped in dark green military uniforms, greets us.

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The resignation of Ron Dermer, Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs, one of the main negotiators of the current ceasefire in GazaDermer, one of Benjamin Netanyahu's most trusted advisors, has exposed the cracks in the Israeli government. In a country marked by two years of war in Gaza and constant tension on the northern border, his departure, announced this week, has raised concerns about the stability of the coalition. Dermer, who previously served as ambassador to Washington and was seen as the most pragmatic voice in the security cabinet, is leaving for personal reasons, but his exit comes at the worst possible time. Netanyahu faces criticism for his handling of Gaza, the lack of a clear roadmap for the region, and internal conflicts among factions within his government. Without Dermer, the prime minister loses one of his most reliable bridges to Washington and Arab capitals, precisely when he needs to project cohesion and control. In Gaza, the situation remains delicate; The territory remains under partial occupation and military control, with border incidents. Day in, day out. Since early November, a humanitarian pause sponsored by Qatar and Egypt has allowed some aid to enter and some displaced people to return home, but frequent closures of access corridors and sporadic incidents serve as a reminder that the truce is fragile.

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Almost a year after the fall of the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-AssadGerman Chancellor Friedrich Merz has encouraged Syrian refugees living in Germany to return to their country and warned that those who do not will be deported. "The civil war in Syria is over; there are no longer any grounds for seeking asylum in Germany," Merz said this week. "Of course, in the future we will also be able to deport those who refuse to return to their country once they are already in Germany," the chancellor warned.

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What do they have in common? the Syrian AlawitesWhat about the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds, and the Syrian and Lebanese Druze? All of them are ethnic or religious minorities in predominantly Sunni countries, with the exception of the complex case of Lebanon. But they also have something else in common: this week, delegates from these minorities met "to discuss the future" with Israeli representatives, and they did so publicly in Tel Aviv.

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