Israel carrying out mine-clearing operation near Syria border

The Defense Ministry says it is carrying out activities to clear explosives from an area of the Golan Heights near the Syrian border today.

Crews are being deployed to areas around the community of Ein Zivan to clear mines and other unexploded ordnance in the ground there.

“As part of the planned operations, blasts from explosions will be heard and clouds of smoke will be seen in the area,” the Defense Ministry says.

Many areas of the Golan Heights are pocked with mines left over from previous wars with Syria in past decades, and mine-clearing operations there are not rare. The strategic plateau was captured from Syria in 1967 and later effectively annexed into Israel.

It was repeatedly targeted by mortar, rocket, missile and drone fire from Hezbollah and Iran-backed groups following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, and also suffered spillover violence from the Syrian civil war in past years.

Most explosive disposal efforts in the past several years have focused on areas near Ein Zivan. Mine clearing last took place there in early February.

Tuesday’s announcement is not thought to be linked to Israel’s recent signaling that it could expand its operations in southern Syria to protect the Druze community there, with Syrian reports overnight claiming IDF troops were 13 kilometers (8 miles) inside the enemy country.

Analysts have speculated that Jerusalem is interested in the establishment of a Druze-controlled autonomous zone south of Damascus to serve as a buffer between Israel and the Islamist forces now running Syria, a move that would somewhat insulate border communities like Ein Zivan.