Israel gave troops instructions on Friday to get ready to spend the winter on Mount Hermon, a strategic peak inside a buffer zone that has been shared with Syria for decades but that Israeli forces have taken control of since the fall of the Assad administration.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that, given the situation in Syria, “our holding of the Hermon peak is of great security importance and everything must be done to ensure the IDF’s preparations in the area, to allow the troops to stay there in the difficult weather conditions.”
Although Israel has maintained that its presence in the buffer zone is defensive and transitory, worries have been raised by what UN chief António Guterres called “severe violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” on Thursday, when he asked for Israeli forces to leave the area.
He also voiced alarm over hundreds of Israeli strikes on targets around Syria after the overthrow of the Assad government, which Israel claims are meant to keep the regime’s weapons out of the hands of terrorists.
Katz posted a picture on X on Friday, claiming to be with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they used binoculars to view the Syrian summit of Mount Hermon, which he said had “returned to Israeli control after 51 years.”
He wrote, “An exciting historical moment,”
The fall of the Assad administration “created a vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone,” according to Netanyahu’s office. The buffer zone was constructed as part of a ceasefire between the two nations after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
“Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7th style attacks,” according to his office.
The majority of the international world did not acknowledge Israel’s occupation and subsequent annexation of the Golan Heights following the 1967 Mideast War.
Mount Hermon is the highest peak on the eastern Mediterranean coast, rising more than 9,000 feet. Since reclaiming the region a week ago, Israel has faced immediate criticism from those who believe it is taking advantage of the changing circumstances in Syria to seize land.
Following the first Friday prayers since his family’s 50 years of cruel tyranny came to an end in a surprising advance by rebel forces, Syrians flocked to large gatherings around the country on Friday to celebrate the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
The primary rebel organization that overthrew Assad, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, urged Syrians in a video message to “take to the squares to celebrate the victory.”
However, he asked that people celebrate peacefully and without shooting or making a scene “so that we can then move on to building this country.”
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