Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa said on Saturday Israel is using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, but that he is not interested in engaging in new conflicts as the country focuses on rebuilding following the end of Bashar al-Assad's reign.

Sharaa - better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani - leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that swept Assad from power last week, ending the family's five-decade iron-fisted rule.

Israel has since moved into a demilitarised zone inside Syria created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, including the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon that overlooks Damascus, where it took over an abandoned Syrian military post.

Israel, which has said that it does not intend to stay there and calls the incursion into Syrian territory a limited and temporary measure to ensure border security, has also carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles.

Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan, condemned what they called Israel's seizure of a buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

"Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region," Sharaa said in an interview published on the website of Syria TV, a pro-opposition channel.

"Syria's war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations. The priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability, not being drawn into disputes that could lead to further destruction."

He also said diplomatic solutions were the only way to ensure security and stability and that "uncalculated military adventures" were not wanted.

On Russia, whose military intervention almost a decade ago helped tip the balance in Assad's favour and which gave asylum to the ousted leader earlier this week, Sharaa said that its relations with Syria should serve common interests.

"The current stage requires careful management of international relations," he added.

(Reuters)

Thousands gathered in northwestern Syria on Friday for weekly prayers and a rally where clerics in the port city of Latakia, a former stronghold of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, urged national unity under the country's new government.

"Freedom forever despite Assad," some in the crowd at the square outside Al-Ajjan mosque chanted, along with "God is greatest" and "One, one, one, Syrian people are one".

Syrian rebels toppled Assad and his family's brutal five-decade rule on Sunday and formed a new administration led by former al Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS). The group has promised a tolerant and inclusive new order.

After the first Friday prayers since Assad's overthrow, religious leaders addressed a crowd of thousands outside the mosque, calling for people to give up their weapons, Reuters reported.

Some spectators waved Syria's new flag while the country's new anthem, a rebel song adopted for the purpose, played over speakers.

Khaled Kamal, a Sunni imam who spoke at the gathering, told Reuters after the rally that it was a "joy like no other" to return to Syria after fleeing abroad during the war. He called on all Syrians abroad to return.

"To be honest, this moment is indescribable," Kamal said.

"We welcome any president for Syria, whether it's a Sunni, an Alawite or Christian, as long as the people choose him," he added, referring to Assad's Alawite ethnic and religious group.

The future in Syria, where the Sunni HTS has emerged as the dominant force, holds uncertainty for many, especially its minorities.

Shi'ite Muslims, whose Alawite offshoot is centred in Latakia, are thought to be about a tenth of the population, which stood at 23 million before the country's civil war began in 2013.

Muhammed Reda Hatem Abdullah, an influential Alawite preacher who took part in the rally, said he did not discriminate against any group and wanted to see all faiths stand united.

"The unity of Syria is an ambition that we will pass on to our children and the future generations. They will know that the sanctity of the homeland is part of the sanctity of humanity," he said in an interview.

Suheil Hamwi spent 32 years in a Syrian prison, and now, after an offensive by rebel fighters that toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, he’s finally returned to his home in Lebanon.

In 1992, Hamwi worked as a merchant, selling various goods in the town of Chekka in northern Lebanon. On the night of Eid il-Burbara, or Saint Barbara’s Day — a holiday similar to Halloween — a car filled with men pulled up outside his house and forced him into the vehicle.

It would be years before his family heard from him again.

Hamwi was one of hundreds of Lebanese citizens detained during Syria’s occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 and believed to be held in Syrian prisons for decades.

On Sunday, freedom came to him and others unexpectedly — prisoners who’d heard rumors about Syria’s opposition forces and their sweeping campaign found that guards had abandoned their posts.

Hamwi and other prisoners left, he said, and he would soon be among the first from Lebanon to reenter the country.

“I’m still scared this might not be real,” he told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday from his home — the same one he left more than three decades ago.

For years after the night of his disappearance, Hamwi’s family didn’t know where he was. It wasn’t until 16 years later that his wife discovered he was imprisoned in Syria. Even then, the reason for his detention remained unclear, Hamwi said.

It took another four years before authorities finally told him the charge, he said: He was detained because he was a member of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party that also functioned as a militia during the 15-year Lebanese civil war that ended in 1990.

The party fought against Syrian forces and remained opposed to Syria’s military presence in Lebanon afterward.

He said he spent his first years in Syria’s notorious Saydnaya prison before being transferred to other facilities, eventually ending up in prison in Latakia. Torture marked his early days behind bars, he added, “but that stopped after a while.”

For years, he said, he lived in nearly complete isolation. He was alone in a small cell, surrounded by other Lebanese detainees as well as Palestinians and Iraqis.

In 2008, he said, his wife was able to visit him for the first time. Then she came about once a year.

Last week, there was some buzz in the prison about what was happening outside. “But we didn’t know the dream would reach us,” Hamwi told AP.

Early Sunday morning, chaos erupted as prisoners discovered the guards were gone.

“The first door opened,” Hamwi said, describing how rebels stormed the prison and started opening cell gates. “Then others followed. And for those who couldn’t open their gates, they started coming out through the walls.”

The prisoners left “walking toward the unknown,” he said. “And I walked with them.”

Strangers on the street helped guide him back to Lebanon, Hamwi said. He came into the country through the Arida border crossing in northern Lebanon, where his family waited on the other side.

As Hamwi walked through his door, it was his two grandchildren who greeted him.

“This is the first time I met them,” Hamwi later told AP, his voice tinged with disbelief.

Hawmi has visited a hospital for tests to assess the toll of 32 years in captivity. And he has to relearn life outside prison walls.

He hoped one of the best moments was yet to come: his reunion with only son George, an engineer working in the Gulf.

In their first phone call, Hamwi said, George told him the words he’d been longing to hear: “I miss you. I love you. I’m waiting to see you.”