File image.
On June 29, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that it had cleared a minefield in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
According to the ministry, dozens of mines were detonated in the operation. Video footage from the scene shows a series of blasts throwing up a massive plume of dust. The minefield was originally planted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during the war of 1973.
The Syria Sham FM radio station and other pro-government news sources speculated that the minefield was cleared by the IDF to make way for the building of wind turbines, which has been the cause of recent protests in the Golan Heights. However, this is yet to be confirmed.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights from Syria in a 1967 war and later annexed it, a move not recognized by most world powers.
Thousands of Druze residents of the Syrian Golan clashed with Israeli forces earlier this month to protest against the wind turbines project. As a result of the clashes, four protesters were seriously injured, one of them from live fire, along with three moderately and one lightly. Twelve police officers were also wounded.
The project triggered the local community, who view it as an encroachment on ancestral lands and a solidification of Israeli occupation.
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