IDF bolsters forces on Syria border as rebels appear set to capture Homs

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that it was deploying additional ground and air forces on the border with Syria as jihadist rebels continued their rapid advance, spurring fears that the Assad regime could collapse, bringing further uncertainty to the war-battered region.

On Saturday, it said even more forces were being dispatched to the border amid the chaos on the other side.

The move came as the rebels appeared set to drive regime-aligned forces out of Homs, the country’s third-largest city. Jerusalem is reportedly preparing for the possibility that the Syrian army could collapse in the face of the lighting progress by the anti-government forces.

“The IDF is following the events and is prepared for any scenario in attack and defense,” the military said, adding that it “will not allow a threat near Israel’s border, and will work to thwart any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”

In a video released by the IDF, troops could be seen fortifying a barrier along the border with Syria with bulldozers digging anti-tank trenches along the frontier.

The statement followed fresh assessments held on Thursday by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and the head of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin.

Halevi also met with Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday and Friday. The Defense Ministry said Katz had “instructed the IDF to maintain a high level of readiness and continue to monitor the developments.”

IDF troops with the  210th  “Bashan” Regional Division are seen on the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights, in a video issued on December 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

An official cited by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said the security cabinet will hold two meetings on the unfolding conflict in Syria, on Saturday evening and Sunday evening.

In a sign of the scope of Israel’s concerns over the implications of the possible fall of the Assad regime, Channel 12 reported Friday that the Israeli Air Force had recently hit Syrian strategic weapons stores, including caches of chemical weapons, fearing they could fall into the hands of the jihadists.

The network cited “foreign reports,” though no such reports appear to exist, indicating that the citation was a tactic by the network to get around Israel’s military censor.

Earlier this week, the Haaretz daily reported that the Israeli military fears that amid the Syrian rebel assault and their taking over of military sites belonging to the Assad regime in the country, chemical weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

If such weapons fall into the hands of the rebels or Iranian-backed militias, Israel would have to act in a way that “may affect Syria and the entire Middle East,” according to Haaretz.

Iranian support

The newspaper report added that Israel had recently conveyed messages to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, via Russia, demanding that he “uphold his sovereignty and not allow Iran to operate in his territory.”

Iran, along with its ally Russia, supports the Assad regime. Syria serves as a throughway for Iran to send its weapons to its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, another Assad ally.

At a meeting in Baghdad Friday with his Syrian and Iraqi counterparts, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pledged to provide Syria with all the support it needed. Fuad Hussein, the Iraqi foreign minister, also condemned the “terrorist entities” fighting Assad.

Iraq has amassed thousands of fighters from its own military and Iran-aligned militias along its border with Syria.

An Iraqi Shiite politician, a government adviser and an Arab diplomat briefed on the matter told Reuters that the orders so far are to defend Iraq rather than intervene on Assad’s behalf. However, they said, the calculation could change depending on developments, including if the rebels take the major Syrian city of Homs, if Assad falls, or if the Sunni rebels persecute Syria’s Shiite minority, with which Assad is aligned.

Iraqi government spokesperson Bassem Al-Awadi said Iraq does not seek military intervention in Syria but described the division of Syria as a “red line” for Iraq, without elaborating.

Bassam al-Sabbagh, Syria’s foreign minister, also denounced what he described as the “regional and international interference” in his country, which he said aimed to “divide” the region.

A senior Iranian official said that Tehran, which has been focused on tensions with arch-foe Israel since the Gaza war began, would send missiles, drones and more advisers to Syria.

On Friday, the IDF said it had struck several border crossings and land routes between Syria and Lebanon overnight, which the military said were being used to send arms to Hezbollah.

The strikes were carried out against the Arida Crossing between northern Lebanon and Syria, as well as several routes in the al-Qusayr area. Syrian’s state news agency said the strikes put the Arida Crossing out of service.

The IDF said the strikes were part of a campaign against Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is tasked with delivering weapons from Iran and its proxies to Lebanon.

Arida border crossing between #Syria and #Lebanon is out of service due to an #Israeli aggression that targeted it on Friday dawn. https://t.co/ojvLNNOp4v pic.twitter.com/RRGhxoaKd4

— SANAEnglishOfficial (@SANAEnOfficial) December 6, 2024

Rebels appear set to take Homs, cutting Assad off from stronghold

Rebels led by the Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) advanced on Homs Friday, after ousting Assad’s forces from the major cities of Aleppo and Hama for the first time since the civil war began in 2011.

Fearing the rebels, thousands of people are said to have fled from Homs to the government’s strongholds in Syria’s western coastal regions.

Should the jihadist rebels seize Homs, they would cut off the capital Damascus from the coast, a longtime redoubt of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, and the site of Russian air and naval bases.

Hezbollah said it had sent a small number of “supervising forces” from Lebanon to Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing Homs.

A Syrian military officer and two regional officials close to Tehran told Reuters that elite forces from the Iran-backed terror group had crossed over from Lebanon overnight and taken up positions in Homs.

A Syrian army officer also told Reuters that overnight Russian bombing had destroyed the Rastan bridge along the M5 highway, the main route to Homs, to prevent rebels from using it to advance.

Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that “Russian air strikes and Syria air raids and shelling killed 20 people near Homs city, including five people from the same family.”

Meanwhile, a US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters took Deir Ezzor, the Assad regime’s main foothold in the vast desert in the east of the country, three Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday. The Kurdish group’s leader said Islamic State had also taken control of parts of the area.

In the southern Syrian city of Sweida, at least three people were killed in clashes between Druze militias and government forces on Friday, two witnesses and a local activist said.

They said anti-government fighters also seized the main police station and the biggest civilian prison hours after hundreds of people protested in a square demanding Assad’s downfall.