BEIRUT — Syrian rebels launched a wide-ranging offensive against government positions near the Israeli side of the Golan Heights on Wednesday, surrounding a Druze village and raising concerns that refugees would flood toward the border with Israel.
The advance came a day after Israel, which has a significant Druze population, said it was preparing for the possibility that refugees fleeing fighting in the area might seek to cross to the Israeli side of the strategic plateau.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory said rebels, including Islamist fighters, surrounded the village of Hader on Wednesday.
“Hader is now totally surrounded by rebels, who just took a strategic hilltop north of the village,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. (READ MORE)
