According to the armistice agreement signed with Syria. The agreement included a provision protecting some seven villages located within the DMZ; nevertheless, between 1949 and 1956 pressure was applied to "induce" most of the population of these villages to go into exile in Syria. By 1956, the DMZ's 2,200 inhabitants had been pushed out by a combination of "economic and police pressure". There are no Israeli settlements in the village lands. The village site is littered with rubble, piles of stones, and fragments of houses.