Buses arrive to ferry Syria rebels out of zone near Golan: monitor

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BEIRUT, July 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Buses were gathering on Friday in a
southwestern sliver of Syria near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights to
transfer rebel fighters and civilians to opposition territory further north,
a monitor said.

The transfers come under a surrender deal agreed this week between Russia
and Syrian rebels in Quneitra province that will see the sensitive zone fall
back under state control.

Rebels will hand over territory they control in Quneitra and the
neighbouring buffer zone with the Israeli-occupied Golan, a war monitor and a
rebel source told AFP.

The deal included safe passage to northern Syria for any hardliners who
refuse to live under government control, and buses began entering the area
Friday to carry out the transfers, according to the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.

“The buses reached government-controlled territory in Quneitra on
Thursday, and today they began crossing into opposition areas for the
evacuation,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said it remained unclear how many fighters and civilians would
ultimately be evacuated, but that the buses would likely be picking up people
from multiple locations in Quneitra and the adjacent buffer.

A rebel source told AFP that the evacuations were expected to begin around
mid-morning on Friday.

Quneitra is a thin, crescent-shaped province wedged between the buffer to
the west and the Syrian province of Daraa to its east.

One month ago, Syria’s regime launched an operation to retake rebel areas
in Daraa and Quneitra, using military force and surrender deals brokered by
its Russian ally.

Fighting forced several hundred thousand people to flee, and as many as
140,000 remain displaced in Quneitra, according to the United Nations.

The UN’s humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) warned they are
inaccessible to aid organisations based around an hour away in Damascus
because of a lack of approvals.

Both Israel and Jordan, which shares a border with Syria, have kept their
borders closed to the displaced.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan from
Syria in 1967 and later annexed it, in a move never recognised
internationally.