Israel destroys Syrian army post in Golan Heights
IDF says Syrians tried to establish an observation post on Israeli side of buffer zone on the strategic plateau
The Israeli army destroyed a Syrian regime observation post established on the Israeli side of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights on Tuesday, a spokesperson said.
The army “destroyed a forward observation post of the Syrian army that was set up in an Israeli area west of the Alfa line in the Golan Heights,” spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on Twitter, referring to the Israeli side of a UN-patrolled buffer zone between both countries.
He said troops attacked and blew up the post, adding that Israel would not “tolerate any attempt to violate the sovereignty” of the Jewish state.
The site is on the Syrian side of the border fence, but still technically in Israeli territory.
Channel 13 showed footage of the troops going in and planting the explosives. Officers told the channel the posts were also used by Hezbollah fighters and pro-Iranian militias.
“We vaporized it,” one officer told the TV.
The report said the IDF had deliberately used ground forces instead of targeting the site from the air in order to send a message to Syria and Hezbollah that Israel would not tolerate any violations of its sovereignty.
There was no immediate report of any casualties.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, mostly targeting Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces as well as Syrian government troops, though it rarely acknowledges them.
The military has said it hit some 50 targets in 2020 alone.
Israel says it is trying to prevent Iran, which has been one of the Syrian government’s key allies in the decade-old civil war, from gaining a permanent military foothold on its doorstep.
The Golan Heights, a strategic plateau, was captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War.