IDF: Troops will stay in Syria buffer zone and strategic Mount Hermon as long as needed

After the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday captured the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon, along with a buffer zone that has existed between the countries since the 1970s, the military stressed that the move was temporary, but also acknowledged that troops would likely remain inside Syrian territory for the foreseeable future.

Israel is preparing for potential chaos following the lightning-fast fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

On Monday morning, Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the IDF to complete its takeover of the buffer zone separating Israel and Syria on the Syrian side of the border in the Golan Heights, a day after the military began its deployment there.

The 235-square-kilometer demilitarized buffer zone was established in the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria, which concluded the Yom Kippur War, and has been manned for decades by UN peacekeepers. However, Israel said Sunday that with the fall of the Assad regime, it considered the agreement void until order is restored in Syria.

The IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Regional Division, which is tasked with the Golan Heights area, began on Sunday to deploy forces to the buffer zone inside Syrian territory, including atop the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, where troops had not stepped foot for over 50 years.

The IDF said that its deployment to the buffer zone was a defensive and temporary measure amid the situation in Syria, but said that it may end up staying there for a long time, depending on the developments in the country.

Paratroopers deploy to the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, in footage released by the IDF on December 9, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

According to the military, troops were carrying out defensive operations “to prevent any threat.”

Sunday’s deployment marked the first time since the 1974 agreement that Israeli forces have taken up positions in the buffer zone, inside Syrian territory. The IDF had entered the zone briefly on several occasions in the past.

“We are acting first and foremost to protect our border,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday from the frontier.

“This area has been controlled for nearly 50 years by a buffer zone agreed upon in 1974, the separation of forces agreement. This agreement has collapsed. The Syrian soldiers have abandoned their positions.

“We gave the Israeli army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel. This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found,” Netanyahu added.

The military has indicated that it only plans to operate on the ground inside the buffer zone, and not beyond it.

According to the military, troops, including the Paratroopers Brigade, were being deployed to specific strategic positions in the buffer zone to prevent gunmen from being in the area. The IDF fears that following the fall of the Assad regime, and with an abundance of weapons in the area, hostile forces could attack Israel.

The IDF said the deployment was being carried out in coordination with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which is tasked with the buffer zone. UNDOF members were staying in their positions.

Israel has also sent warnings to the rebel forces in southern Syria to not approach the buffer zone. On Saturday, the IDF intervened with artillery fire to repel unidentified gunmen who tried to attack a UN post near the Syrian border town of Hader.

Among the strategic positions captured by the IDF was the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, located more than 10 kilometers from the Israeli border, the furthest point in the buffer zone.

The mountain had last been in IDF control during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israel withdrew from the area under the Agreement on Disengagement a year later.

Members of the Israeli Air Force’s elite Shaldag unit on Sunday raided the mountain, which has a peak of 2,814 meters (9,232 feet) above sea level, without facing any resistance.

The altitude of the mountain makes it a strategic position for the IDF to better monitor the border area and prevent any attacks.

The military said the move to capture the buffer zone and Mount Hermon was purely to ensure that attacks aren’t carried out against Israel, and it would remain there until the situation in Syria was clear. The IDF was also beefing up defenses on the Israeli side of the border.

Following the capture of the strategic mountain, Katz in a statement Monday morning said that he’d ordered the IDF to “complete the takeover of the buffer zone in Syria” and that overnight, troops seized additional positions in the area.

Katz also said he’d ordered the military to create a “security zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terror infrastructure” in southern Syria, including beyond the buffer zone, that could pose a threat to Israel. He was apparently referring to Air Force action rather than ground forces activity.

Alongside that, Katz instructed the military to establish contacts with the Druze community and other populations in southern Syria. Many members of the Druze community on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights have family in Syria.

Additionally, Katz said he had instructed the IDF to “immediately prevent and thwart the renewal of the arms smuggling route from Iran to Lebanon through Syria, in Syrian territory and at the border crossing points.” Israel has been countering the transfer of weapons with airstrikes in recent years.

Lastly, Katz instructed the military to continue to destroy “strategic weapons” in Syria that Israel fears could fall into the hands of hostile forces, including “surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets, and coast-to-sea missiles.”

On Sunday, Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck dozens of targets across Syria, taking out weaponry that Israel feared could fall into the hands of hostile forces.

The IDF said that it was following the developments in Syria, but without getting directly involved.

The Syrian government fell early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family, after a sudden rebel offensive sprinted across government-held territory and entered the capital in 10 days.

Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad’s rule, dragged in major outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plot attacks around the world, and sent millions of refugees into neighboring states.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest rebel group, is the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the US and others as a terrorist organization, and many Syrians remain fearful it will impose draconian Islamist rule.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.

Agencies contributed to this report.