IDF officers allowed rabbi, aide, to meet soldiers in Syria before Passover without proper approval

IDF officers allowed prominent Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, 82, and one of his aides to enter Syria earlier this month to meet with soldiers ahead of Passover.

The military says that their entry to Syria was not approved through the correct channels. However, no punishments are expected to be handed out.

According to the IDF, Aviner and his aide are active reservists and they entered Syria as part of their role in reserves, “to deliver content ahead of Passover.”

“Their entry into Syrian territory was approved without the relevant authority,” the army says, adding that it investigated the process in which their entry to Syria was approved and “the procedures were sharpened.”

The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. There have been only two minor incidents of troops coming under fire since then, during operations deeper inside Syria and not at the posts near the border.

In November, civilian researcher Zeev Erlich, 71, who was not in the reserves, was allowed into an area of southern Lebanon where fighting was taking place. He entered without the correct approval and was killed, alongside a soldier who was escorting him.

צה״ל מתחקר את הכנסת הרב שלמה אבינר ועוזרו לשטח סוריה כדי להעביר תכנים ללוחמים לקראת חג הפסח – מבלי שקיבלו את האישור הנדרש לכך@Doron_Kadosh pic.twitter.com/sRRcZ2UhVg

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) April 2, 2025