ISTANBUL 

Syrians staged protests on Monday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the demilitarization of southern Syria.

"No to Israeli incursion" and "Southern Syria is part of free Syria" read banners waved by scores of Syrian protesters in Quneitra province, according to videos shared on social media.

Protesters also gathered in Al-Karama Square in Suweyda province, reaffirming their rejection of any interference in their country's affairs.

“Down with Israel,” chanted protesters in the Bosra al-Sham town in eastern Daraa. "From Daraa to Aleppo, Syria is one heart," reads a banner waved by demonstrators during the rally.

On Sunday, Netanyahu called for the complete demilitarization of southern Syria in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda from the forces of the new Syrian army.

“We will not tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria,” he claimed, saying that the Israeli army will stay in Syria’s buffer zone and the Syrian Hermon Mount "Jabal al-Sheikh" for "an unlimited period of time."

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

The Israeli army also intensified airstrikes targeting Syrian military positions across the country.

Israel’s recent military advances in the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967, have drawn condemnation from the United Nations and several Arab nations.