Aamer Ibrahim, a Majdal Shams-activist and co-founder of Uploading Conscription, a group that campaigns against Israeli settlements and economic projects in the region, notes that now is the “hardest period” endured by Syrians since the war broke out.

More recently, a U.S.-Israeli firm with links advised by former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney recently began exploratory oil drilling in the Golan.