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As the war in Syria rages on, villagers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are watching on helplessly, as their friends and relatives are caught in the conflict.
Members of the Druze religious group are separated by a border fence.
Salman Fahkr El-Deen can see the fence from his balcony. Sometimes the war comes so close, he can feel it.
"At home here, the windows are shaking from the noise of the guns, and the fighting on the Syrian side," he said.
The fence divides the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria. It runs across the valley, only metres from some of the houses.
But, it has also cut through families. Many residents of the village have loved ones living on the other side. They feel great pain for the civilians caught in the fighting.
"It's more than feeling. Because the closest village here is full of our relatives, and our friends," Mr El-Deen said.
"It was in the eye of the storm. All the neighbouring villages here on both sides, are our neighbours."
Photo:
Members of the Druze religious group are separated by a border fence. (ABC News: Tim Stevens)
He has lived in the Golan Heights, his whole life.
"The Golan Heights are like the Mona Lisa. Beautiful, but sad," he said.
"War is changing boundaries everywhere. This is the idea of war. This is the diplomacy of fire.
"This is what makes me very anxious, concerned about the future, that the regime is considering to divide Syria."
Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967, and has continued to occupy and administer the territory.
Most of the residents of the village of Majdal Shams are members of the Druze ethnic minority. Some have formally taken up Israeli citizenship, some have refused, others still regard themselves as Syrian.
The Druze are primarily in Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. They have a strong sense of kinship, which crosses borders, nationalities and fences.
Even though they live on the Israeli side, some of the residents regard themselves as proudly Syrian. Some fiercely oppose President Bashar al-Assad, others support him.
Hasan Abu Wesam runs a small store near the main square, selling nuts and sweets. The Syrian flag flies above his shop and the television is tuned in to a Syrian news channel.
"President Bashar al-Assad is a democrat. Everyone says this is not true and he is a dictator, but this is wrong," Mr Wesam said.
"He is defending his country, and fighting for his people, he is refusing to have Syria divided."
On April 14, the United States, Britain and France launched missile strikes on three locations in Damascus and Homs, in response to an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian military in the city of Douma on April 7.
"When I heard the news of the strike on Syria, the next morning I felt bad, it was very shocking, I felt like we been hit by a lightning strike, we felt like we'd been hit here, in this village," Mr Wesam said.
"We were so disgusted, people gathered on the streets talking about the aggression, they were dispirited, wanted to know more, what happened, what damage it caused, what were the results. People were very sad, it was bad news to us."
Fence has become part of daily life
But some of the younger residents of Majdal Shams do not want to get involved in politics, they just want peace.
Afeef Shofi, 25, works in his family's earthmoving business in summer. In winter, he works as a ski instructor in the Golan Heights and Europe. He sees a big generation gap between young and old in the local Druze community.
"Actually, there is. The older generation always focuses on the bigger picture. It focuses on what happened in the Golan Heights, what happened in the year of the occupation, what's happening in Syria," he said.
"But the younger generation are more focused on the people, on what's happening right now in Syria, all the bombing, everything that is happening in Syria, we focus on it more than them."
The fence has become part of daily life here. It cuts across the valley where the Druze once freely travelled.
"Actually we got used to it. It's not normal for everyone. All the visitors who come here, the first thing they see is the fence. And it's a big fence, not a small one," Ms Shofi said.
"We live on this side, we live our life, like an ordinary life. But most of the time we think about what's happening on the other side and what will happen."
Some of the residents of Majdal Shams send donations to stricken family members on the other side. The war is so close, but so far away.
"This thing hurts us the most, because all of the families here have relatives there, brothers, sisters, uncles, all of the family members," Mr Shofi said.
"We try to keep in touch as we can with them, to see if they are OK, what is happening. We try to help, by supporting them, we can't do much here. On this side here we can't do much to help them."
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, foreign-affairs, syrian-arab-republic, israel
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