In response to the ongoing attacks by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, began, at dawn on Saturday, October 7, 2023, a military operation dubbed “Al-Aqsa Flood”.

Hundreds of Resistance fighters were able to cross the Israeli-imposed dividing line between Gaza and its occupied surrounding. They surprised the so-called “invincible army”, attacked 50 sites and centers, and killed, wounded, and captured hundreds of soldiers and officers.

What is the official Syrian position?

Following the start of the operation, the official pages of the Syrian Presidency published a picture, with the hashtag Al-Aqsa Flood, showing the map of Palestine, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Palestinian flag.

Syrian channels were already in a state of mourning for the martyrs of the terrorist attack on the Military College in Homs, but they moved to cover events in occupied Palestine.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry expressed Syria's condemnation of the brutal occupation practices against the Palestinian people, stressing that the Resistance's response to these practices proves the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state on their land and exercise their legitimate right of return and build a future worthy of this people, their heritage, and their dignity, which the Zionist colonizers tried to rob.

Syria also affirmed its position rejecting the Zionist colonial transfer policies against the Palestinian people, calling on the United States and the West to prevent the Israeli occupation from forcibly moving  2.3 million people of the Gaza Strip to Sinai outside Palestine. 

The Syrian Foreign Ministry stated that the Israeli occupation used during the past week a scorched earth policy against the children and women of Palestine in the Gaza Strip, Al-Quds, and the West Bank, destroyed their homes, and cut off food, medicine, electricity, and humanitarian aid.

They also destroyed about 20 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, leaving the wounded to die.

Israelis perpetrate mass atrocity crimes to force Palestinians to leave Palestine and flee to Sinai. We are witnessing a repeat of the 1948 Nakba.

The Syrian Parliament published a statement: “The courageous and heroic operation of the Palestinian resistance is living evidence of the firm conviction that resistance in all its forms and means is the only way to restore usurped rights and that the Zionist occupier whom we face only understands the language of force and that what was taken by force can only be restored by force."

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An emergency meeting of Palestinian factions in Damascus

Last week, the Palestinian Resistance factions held an emergency meeting in Damascus against the backdrop of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

The representative of the Islamic Jihad movement in Syria, Ismail al-Sindawi, told Al Mayadeen, "Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, and Iraq are at the heart of the battle, and they stand by the Palestinian people during this major confrontation with Israel, as in all previous rounds. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is still in its infancy, and the coming days will bring many surprises for the Israeli occupation army. We call on Netanyahu to go into a ground battle in the Gaza Strip, where his soldiers will be easy prey for the heroes of the resistance and then, the occupation forces will witness the worst nightmares ever."

On his part, the member of the General Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Dr. Muhammad Abu Namous, told Al Mayadeen, “Al-Aqsa Flood Battle is a message to all Arab regimes that have normalized relations with Israel that this enemy is too weak to provide them with protection. We call on all Arab peoples to raise their voices loudly today to support and defend the Palestinian Resistance and to provide it with all support."

'Salvation of the Syrians in exchange for normalization with Israel'

From the beginning of the Syrian war, pressure was exerted on public opinion trying to influence the Syrian stance toward normalization with “Israel”. The enemy was trying to establish the Israeli presence as a fait accompli in the region that must be dealt with and considering normalization with it as a way out of all the problems facing the country.

Some “opposition” figures residing abroad announced their desire to conclude a “peace agreement” that would lead to complete normalization and sever Syria's relations with both Iran and Hezbollah.

Some of them conducted direct meetings with Israeli figures and visited Tel Aviv, which provided Israeli support to armed groups in various forms, including receiving the wounded of armed groups in hospitals in the occupied Arab territories.

The effects of the Western economic blockade on the country have worsened since the US administration began implementing the “Caesar Act” in 2020.

The suspicious promotion of proposals began once again, saying that “getting rid of the difficult economic reality can only be achieved through normalization with Israel."

But the Syrian popular response was always the same, as the events of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood reignited the popular feelings of Syrians rejecting normalization, and supporting all Palestinian Resistance factions with no exception.

From Syria... here is Palestine!

The Syrian people took part in large and multiple solidarity marches in support of the Palestinian Resistance and Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in the face of the brutal attacks of the Israeli occupation.

Hiba Abdel Hamid, a student at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Damascus University, told Al Mayadeen English, “The Syrians support the Palestinian cause, until the liberation of the land and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital. All the heroics today in Palestine give hope of victory to all the peoples who believed in the cause, resisted the occupier, and offered martyrs to liberate the occupied territories."

Lawyer Jamila Mansour considered that “in the past, we supported the suffering Palestine, but today we support a strong and capable Palestine thanks to the courage and loyalty of its people and the support of the axis of resistance."

For his part, Awad Abu Daqqa, a graduate student at the Faculty of Information at Damascus University, who is from Gaza, called on the international community, with its bodies and organizations, to assume its responsibilities toward the crimes of the occupation, including the brutal killing of civilians and children in Palestine, cutting off water, and tightening the siege on Gaza, pointing out that 25 people from his family were martyred in Gaza during the past few days, the majority of whom were children.

As for Ali al-Kurdi, a pediatrician, he said this was the second time he felt that the Zionist entity was about to vanish, knowing that the first time he had this feeling was in the 2006 July war.