AdvertisementSince then, Israel, has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria and erected military bases in the former buffer zone. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has framed the military campaign as defensive and aimed at protecting his country’s borders. Over the weekend, Israeli soldiers could be seen patrolling the town in open-topped jeeps. In his courtyard in Ufaniya, Nasr Muraiwid recalled how his twin 18-year-old grandchildren, Mohammed and Mahmoud, were detained by Israeli soldiers three days earlier, in the middle of the night. The Israeli military, provided with the names of the twins, the time, date and place they were arrested, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrests.