Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to enter the buffer zone and “commanding positions nearby” from the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan.
A UK-based war monitor said Syrian troops had left their positions in Quneitra province, part of which lies inside the buffer zone, on Saturday.
Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War and unilaterally annexed it in 1981.
The Israeli move in the buffer zone came after Syrian rebel fighters captured the capital, Damascus, and toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The IDF seizure of Syrian positions in the buffer zone was a “temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found”, he said.
A demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights has been temporarily taken over by Israel’s military, according to the prime minister, who also claimed that the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria had “collapsed” with the country’s rebel takeover.
Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have given the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) orders to leave the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan and occupy “commanding positions nearby” in the buffer zone.
He declared, “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border.”.
Syrian troops left their positions in Quneitra province, which is partially inside the buffer zone, on Saturday, according to a UK-based war monitor.
Five Syrian villages within the zone were ordered to remain in their homes until further notice by the IDF on Sunday.
Located roughly 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Damascus, the Golan Heights is a rocky plateau.
In the final moments of the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took the Golan from Syria, and in 1981, it annexed it unilaterally. Even though the US made the unilateral move in 2019, it was not acknowledged globally.
Following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s government by Syrian rebel fighters who had taken control of the capital, Damascus, Israel moved into the buffer zone. The country had been ruled by him and his father since 1971.
Early Sunday morning saw the entry of forces led by the Islamist opposition organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into Damascus, after which they appeared on state television and declared Syria “free.”.
A “historic day in the Middle East” was how Netanyahu described the fall of the Assad regime.
According to him, “the fall of the Assad regime, the tyranny in Damascus, offers great opportunity but also is fraught with significant dangers.”.
He claimed that Israeli attacks on Iran and Assad’s allies, the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, were to blame for the events in Syria and that Israel would “send a hand of peace” to Syrians who wished to live in harmony with Israel.
“Temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found” is how he described the IDF’s invasion of Syrian positions in the buffer zone.
“We want to build peaceful and neighborly ties with the new forces that are forming in Syria. However, he added, “If we don’t, we will stop at nothing to protect the State of Israel and its borders.”.
Israel already has its hands full from the Middle East war that has lasted for more than a year.
However, the rate of development in Syria, its neighbor to the north, will be seriously concerning.
In the occupied Golan, the IDF had already deployed reinforcements.
It would be viewed as extremely provocative and sufficient to spark a war in normal circumstances if it had warned the people of several villages to remain in their homes because Israel would not think twice about taking action if it felt the need to.
Israel is particularly worried about who could obtain Bashar al-Assad’s purported chemical weapons stockpile.
Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani is the militant leader of Syria. The occupied Golan Heights, where 20,000 Syrians, mostly Druze, remain after it was taken, coexist with thousands of Israeli settlers, is where his family’s roots are.
Israel is committed to defending its people and will not cede that territory.
Israel determined during the 2011 Syrian revolution that Assad was a safer option than what might come after his rule, even though Assad was an ally of both Iran and Hezbollah.
In Syria, Israel will now attempt to predict what will happen next. It can only speculate, just like everyone else.
