IDF building along UN-patrolled demilitarized zone in Syria, satellite images show
Photos show trenches and fortifications being constructed along Syrian side of Golan Heights border; UN confirms Israeli encroachment ‘into the area of separation’
Israel has begun a construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Golan Heights from Syria, apparently laying asphalt for a road right along the frontier, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show.
Israeli troops have entered the demilitarized zone during the work, the United Nations confirmed to the AP.
Earlier satellite photos show the work began in earnest in late September.
So far, there has been no major violence along the Alpha Line, which delineates the demilitarized zone between Syria and the Golan Heights that UN peacekeepers have patrolled since 1974.
Syria, which has officially been at war with Israel since its founding in 1948 and relies on Iran for support, has remained silent regarding the construction.
The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment and Syrian officials in Damascus declined to comment.
High-resolution images taken on November 5 by Planet Labs PBC for the AP show over 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometers) of construction along the Alpha Line, starting some two miles (3.2 kilometers) southeast of the Druze town of Majdal Shams, where a Hezbollah rocket strike in July killed 12 children playing soccer.
The images appear to show a trench between two embankments, parts of which seems to have been laid with fresh asphalt. There also appears to be fencing running along it, as well toward the Syrian side.
The construction follows a southeast route before heading due south along the Alpha Line, and then again cutting southeast. The images show excavators and other earth-moving equipment actively digging along the route, with more asphalt piled there. The area is also believed to be littered with unexploded ordnance and mines from decades of conflict.
The United Nations maintains a peacekeeping force in the demilitarized zone called the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, or UNDOF.
“In recent months, UNDOF has observed construction activity being carried out by the IDF along the ceasefire line,” UN peacekeeping spokesperson Nick Birnback told the AP.
“In this regard, UNDOF has observed in some instances, IDF personnel, Israeli excavators, other construction equipment, and the construction itself encroach into the area of separation.”
Birnback added that “no military forces, equipment, or activity by either Israel or Syria are permitted in the area of separation.”
While Israel has not acknowledged the construction, it sent a 71-page letter in June to the UN outlining what it described as “Syrian violations of the Alpha Line and armed presence in the area of separation (that) occur daily.” The letter cited numerous Israeli-alleged violations by Syrian civilians crossing the line.
“Syrian violations of that agreement only heighten tensions in our already volatile region,” the letter added.
In October, Reuters reported that Israeli forces were conducting demining operations along the demilitarized zone (DMZ), and that Israeli tanks had even entered Syria a number of times, citing Syrian soldiers and intelligence sources.
The sources said the tanks entered Syria to lend security support to bulldozers setting up what appeared to be a new security fence in the DMZ.
A Syrian soldier stationed in the south told Reuters that Israel was pushing the fence separating the Golan and the DMZ further out and erecting its own fortifications near Syria, “so there would not be any infiltration in the event this front flares up.”
The soldier said Israel appeared to be creating “a buffer zone” in the DMZ. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Israeli troops had dug a new trench near the DMZ in October.
One senior Lebanese security source said the demining operations could allow Israeli troops to “encircle” Hezbollah from the east.
Since the year-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in September, the IDF has also ramped up strikes on Syria, targeting Hezbollah posts, weapons caches and Iranian targets.
Israel has also targeted crossing points on the Syria-Lebanon border, which the IDF said are used by Hezbollah to smuggle arms into their territory in the Shiite-majority areas of southern and eastern Lebanon.
In October, Israeli jets bombed a two-mile-long tunnel that crossed the border between the two neighboring Arab countries, claiming that the tunnel was a well-known smuggling route for Iranian weapons into Lebanon.
During the civil war in Syria, which began during the 2011 Arab Spring, Hezbollah forces entered Syria to support the regime and suppress opposition forces. At the peak of the war, an estimated 8,000 Hezbollah fighters were deployed in Syria, with the Lebanese terror group believed to have lost around 2,000 of its men in battle.
While the civil war has all but ended, and Hezbollah has withdrawn most of its forces from Syrian soil, cross border movement and cooperation is still very active, especially as the Iran-backed group is engaged in large-scale combat against Israel.
Since October 8 of last year, the day after Hamas’s devastating massacre, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the northern border on a near-daily basis in solidarity with the Gaza terror group.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 40 civilians. In addition, 61 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September. Two soldiers were killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have been several attacks from Syria, as well, without injuries.
The Lebanese health ministry says the country’s death toll in the war has surpassed 3,000. The figure does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
