Syrians rally in solidarity with Palestine, protest ‘Israeli’ death penalty law

Hundreds of protesters rallied across southern Syria on Friday, April 3, expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning a new ‘Israeli’ law allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

Demonstrations erupted after Friday prayers in towns across Daraa Province, including Al-Jizah and Maliha al-Atash, as well as in the Daraa Refugee Camp, which hosts displaced Syrians from the Golan Heights and Palestinian refugees.

READ: Palestinians mount general strike against ‘Israeli’ death penalty law

Protesters waved Syrian and Palestinian flags, chanting slogans in support of Gaza and warning ‘Israel’ against continued military incursions into Syrian territory. In Al-Jizah, near the Jordanian border, demonstrators carried banners condemning Israeli policies and voicing anger over the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

The protests come amid heightened tensions along the Syrian-‘Israeli’ frontier. Earlier on Friday, ‘Israeli’ forces killed a Syrian man in Quneitra Province near the occupied Golan Heights, adding to local anger.

“The protests are not just for Gaza. We are demonstrating because we see ‘Israeli’ tanks on our land,” said Mohammad Al-Jadaan, a protester from Al-Hara. “What is happening to Palestinian prisoners is also a message to us.”

Local leaders said the controversial law was the immediate trigger, but deeper grievances are driving the unrest. Sheikh Ihsan Al-Zoubi said the move to execute Palestinian prisoners was “the spark,” while pointing to repeated ‘Israeli’ incursions and what he described as attempts to impose a new security reality in the border region.

Residents also voiced concern over what they see as a lack of state presence in the south. Al-Zoubi said there was an “effective absence of the Syrian state” in border areas, leaving communities to confront escalating tensions largely on their own.

Protests have spread beyond the south in recent days, with thousands rallying in cities including Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs, as well as in opposition-held areas such as Idlib.

The largest mobilizations have taken place in southern towns close to the Golan Heights, including Tafas, Jasem, Nawa, and Sheikh Miskeen, where demonstrators marched on foot and in convoys of cars and motorcycles.

In Quneitra, protesters attempted to approach front-line areas near Al-Rafid when ‘Israeli forces fired illumination flares, signaling heightened alert along the border.

Journalist Mohammad Al-Aweed noted that Palestinian factions have expressed support for the demonstrations and that armed groups have begun calling for broader mobilization near the Golan Heights.

He cautioned that Israel’s far-right government could use the unrest as a pretext to expand military operations in Syria, raising fears of a wider escalation in an already volatile region.