BBCAn hour's drive from Damascus, on a country road leading to the Syrian village of Hatra, we meet the Israeli army.
Two military vehicles and several soldiers in full combat gear guard an improvised checkpoint – a foreign authority in a country celebrating its freedom. They waved us through.
This was evidence of the Israeli incursion into Syrian territory, and the temporary seizure, she said, of the UN-monitored buffer zone, which was established under a ceasefire agreement 50 years ago.
“Maybe they will leave, maybe they will stay, maybe they will make the area safe and then leave,” said Riad Zidan, who lives in Hadar. “We want to hope, but we have to wait and see.”
Village head Jawdat Al-Tawil pointed to the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967, which can be clearly seen from the balconies of Hadar village.
Many residents here have relatives who still live there.
Now, they see Israeli forces routinely moving around their village, parts of which are in the demilitarized zone. On the slope above, Israeli bulldozers can be seen working on the hillside.
A week after the fall of President Assad's regime, the feeling of freedom here has become tinged with fatalism.
Jawdat Al-Tawil proudly told me how the village defended itself against militias during the Syrian civil war, and showed me photos of dozens of men who died doing so.
He added: “We do not allow anyone to encroach on our land.” “(But) Israel is a state – we cannot stand against it. We are used to standing against individuals, but Israel is a superpower.”
Since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Israel has also carried out hundreds of airstrikes on military targets across Syria.
And the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu announced new plans to double the population of Israeli settlements He said in the occupied Golan Heights that this step was necessary because of the “new front” that had opened in Syria.
Before revealing this plan, Syrian Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa warned that Israeli military maneuvers might lead to an unjustified escalation in the region and said that his administration does not want a conflict with Israel.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said its movements were necessary due to threats posed by jihadist groups operating along the ceasefire line with Syria, and described its military incursions there as “limited and temporary.”
The urban population belongs mainly to the Druze sect, an introverted and close-knit group that broke away from mainstream Shiism centuries ago.
When Israel occupied part of the Golan Heights in the 1967 war, and later unilaterally annexed it, some Druze there chose to remain and obtain Israeli citizenship.
Al-Sharaa, the leader of the Syrian militia Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham that forced President Assad from power this month, has family roots in the occupied Golan Heights.
Some here on the Syrian-controlled side fear that Israel's plan is to seize more territory for itself.
For years, Israel has been fighting Iranian-backed militias there that support Assad. This border area is a major arms supply route between Tehran and the proxy forces it maintains, including the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
The fall of Assad has made those groups – and Iran – weaker. But Israel has since intensified its military campaign, taking advantage of the political vacuum to expand its influence.
It is also targeting military equipment left by Assad's forces at their bases across the country, fearing who might use it in the future.
Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Sunday that “immediate risks” facing Israel remained, and that recent developments in Syria had increased the threat, “despite the moderate appearance that rebel leaders claim to project.”
Having been marginalized by the Assad regime, and targeted as infidels by Sunni jihadist groups such as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the Druze in Syria are more tolerant of Israel than many other communities here.
The village has been fighting Iranian-backed groups that Israel sees as a threat here, but Jawdat al-Tawil told me that alliances in the area are shifting, and he is now talking with these groups about reaching an agreement.
Syria is not a place where people rely on just one ally, or fight only one enemy.
“We just need peace,” resident Riad Zidan told me. “We've had enough war, enough blood, enough hard living – we need to stop.”
Religious minorities such as the Druze suffered under Assad. The country's new leaders from Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham have promised tolerance and respect for Syria's diverse ethnic and religious groups.
But eight years ago, the group was still allied with global jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda.
While Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham broke away from al-Qaeda in 2016, Jawdat al-Tawil's son, Abdo, was killed by its militiamen on the outskirts of Hadar, while fighting for the Syrian army.
He showed me the road where 30-year-old Abdo died, and I asked him how he felt about Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham now taking control of Syria.
He added, “At first they were gangs. Now they got rid of the tyrant (Assad) and came to power.” “They are supposed to rule justly, provide safety and guarantee people’s rights.”
“It is not yet clear whether they have changed,” he said. “I hope so.”
Additional reporting by Youssef Shomali, Charlotte Scarr and Mayar Muhanna
