The Druze on the Israeli-occupied side of the border stood watching thick, dark clouds of smoke getting closer to the buffer zone between Syria and Israel as artillery and tank cannon fire reverberated between the hills, leaving clouds of black and light grey smoke.
In Hadar, people stayed in their houses except for small groups of armed Druze fighters who were helping to help defend the community.
Druze historically fought with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's forces, the Syrian Arab army, but lately Druze in Hadar, who saw a lack of practical support on the ground, decided to keep their fighters at home to defend themselves.
Amira, 53, wearing a traditional Druze woman's clothing - a long black dress and a white head cover called a mandil - looked out over the town she was born in.
Earlier in the day, she had spoken to her sister, trapped inside her house with her family.
Amira left Hadar 27 years ago when she married, separating her from her family in Syria. She said her sister's husband died two months ago, but would not say if he was killed while fighting.
"My heart is racing, it's very hard standing here and seeing what's happening to them.
"I pray for them every day and I message them on WhatsApp and phone them."
Assad's forces have lost control of the governorate surrounding Hadar. There is now a fear that the 700,000 Druze making up Syria's third largest minority group will be persecuted in the same way the Yazidis and the Christians were by Isis (Islamic State) in Iraq.
The Sunni rebel groups see the Druze as an offshoot of Shia Islam and consider them infidels. Last week, at least 20 Druze were killed by Jabhat al-Nusra fighters in the Idlib province.
On this day, cars wind their way up a step narrow dirt road through cherry tree orchards, punctuated by fields fenced off with signs warning against land mines.
The dangerous fields are a leftover from the Six Day War in 1967 when Israel took over the Golan Heights, separating Druze families. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 and United Nations peacekeepers patrolled the buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces. They abandoned their posts when the civil war escalated and are now in bases on the Israeli side.
Druze in the occupied Golan Heights mostly refuse to become Israeli citizens and identify as Syrian.
The carloads of families and youths arrive at the hilltop that looks out over Syria. It was once a Druze village called Sheta where 1500 people lived, but it was destroyed in the Yom Kippur war in 1973. There are about 170,000 Druze in the occupied-Golan Heights, the Galilee and other parts of Israel who have called on the Israeli Government to accept Syrian Druze refugees and provide humanitarian and military assistance.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would closely follow the situation on the border.
"My inclination is to take any action that is necessary," he said.
But in a written response to the Herald, the Israeli Defence Forces said they would "maintain a policy of non-involvement in the Syrian civil war in a need to protect Israeli civilians".
Senior Druze leader and Israeli Deputy Minister for Regional Affairs Ayoub Kara visited Jordan last week to try to negotiate a safe passage for Druze and said he would soon be travelling to Turkey to make the same request.
Israeli officials have said Israel may be able to take Syrian Druze refugees but nothing has happened yet. Young Druze do not know if anything will and are worried about the fate that awaits their families.
Waed, a 20-year-old dentistry student from Haifa, balanced a pair of binoculars and a cigarette in one hand and a Druze flag in the other as he stands on the hilltop looking toward Hadar.
"I have 12 family members over there including my grandmother and uncles. They can't leave their houses and food is becoming scarce.
"They are not afraid because Druze believe in their hearts that they will leave it all up to God."
Druze journalist and broadcaster Hamad Awidat said there were 14,000 Druze residents in Hadar and about 1400 of them had weapons to defend themselves. He said nobody was supporting the people in Hadar apart from the town's Druze civilians.
