An Israeli soldier walks past M109 155mm self-propelled howitzers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the Syrian border in 2023. (Image: Ayal Margolin/Jini/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/APAIMAGES)
Israeli forces continued their offensive inside Syria, which began following the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime last Sunday. Israeli troops breached the demilitarized buffer zone established in 1974 between Syrian-held and Israeli-occupied Syrian territory in the Golan, and occupied new positions in the Golan heights and on Mount Al-Sheikh.
Israel’s new advances according to reports included the occupation of nine Syrian towns in the Golan, where Israeli forces forced inhabitants to leave their homes and move deeper into Syria. Israeli tanks continued to advance, reaching up to 18 kilometers inside Syria, approaching the Damascus-Beirut international highway, at no more than 23 kilometers from the Syrian capital.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes conducted at least 300 airstrikes on Syrian military positions, including air defenses, radars, missile positions and arms warehouses according to the Israeli army. Israel also bombed the Syrian public scientific research center in the outskirts of Damascus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that “Israel’s intention is clear in preventing any danger coming from Syria,” adding that “if the new regime in Syria allows Iran to return [to Syria, in reference to Iranian military advisors who had been present in Syria since 2012], then we will confront it.”
The UN spokesperson Stephan Dujarric said that Israel’s actions are a breach of the forces disengagement agreement signed between Syria and Israel in 1974, following the 1973 war. Dujarric said that the UN peacekeeping forces are present in three locations in the Golan, and that they will remain there.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said in a press briefing that Israel’s invasion of Syrian territory was legitimate, because according to him, it aimed at preventing rebel groups from filling the vacuum created by the collapse of the Syrian army. Miller also said that the U.S. will “monitor” Israel’s actions, and make sure that they remain temporary.
Israeli leaders, however, indicated opposite intentions. On Sunday, Netanyahu released a video statement from the occupied Golan Heights, where he celebrated the collapse of Assad’s regime saying that it was a key piece of “the Iranian alliance,” adding that the occupied Syrian Golan will remain part of Israel “for eternity.”
Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 war, along with the West Bank, Gaza, and the Egyptian Sinai desert. Israel’s position was at the beginning that the occupation of these territories was temporary. The occupations of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza continue until today, 57 years later. In 1981, Israel illegally annexed the Golan Heights and the eastern part of Jerusalem, also occupied in 1967.
Israel’s moves in Syria come amid statements from Israeli officials indicating Israel’s plans to announce the annexation of the West Bank. Meanwhile, Israel continues to forcibly drive Palestinians from the north of Gaza, amid calls by Israeli ministers and Knesset members to settle and annex the Gaza Strip as well.
Source: mondoweiss
