Syria accuses Israel of assassinating Golan Affairs Office head Midhat Saleh al-Saleh

The Bashar al-Assad administration has accused the Israeli military of shooting dead Syrian Golan Affairs leader Midhat Saleh al-Saleh. According to Syria's state-run SANA news agency, the Syrian parliamentarian was shot on Saturday by an apparent Israeli sniper in Al Quneitra, near the occupied city of Majdal Shams. The Syrian Cabinet offered its condolences to the friends and family of “the martyr.” 

“The cabinet offers its deepest and sincerest condolences to the Syrian people and to the family and relatives of the martyr, asking God to have upon him ” the Syrian Cabinet said in a statement.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the six-day war of 1967. Out of its total area of 1,860 square kilometres, roughly 1,500 square kilometres remain under Israeli occupation while the rest is controlled by Syria as ‘Syrian Golan’.

"To this day, Israel refuses to implement UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973); which call for the complete withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967, including the Occupied Syrian Golan; as well as Security Council Resolution 479 (1981), which confirms the illegality of Israel 's annexation of the Golan," the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations stated. 

Who is Midhat Saleh al-Saleh?

Midhat Saleh al-Saleh, a member of the Druse religious minority, served 12 years in an Israeli prison on charges of using explosives to allegedly kill Israeli soldiers and civilians. He was released from prison in 1997 following which he fled to Syria where he got elected in the parliament, according to the New York Times. At present, he was responsible for overseeing the strategic Golan Heights boundary. 

His assassination comes at a time the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s plan to increase the number of Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. According to SANA news agency, the Syrian Ministry said that Bennett’s announcement is unable to change the “eternal fact” that Golan was and still remains an Arab and Syrian land. 

Earlier, Bennett had said that Golan Heights is a “strategic goal,” adding that the aim of the Israeli government is to double the communities in the region and establish two new settlements. Now, Tel Aviv is expected to roll out a national plan for the area, to be approved during a cabinet meeting. 

(Image: AP)