Settler activists cross into Syria, are returned by IDF after brief pursuit

A group of Israeli settler activists in vehicles crossed the border from Israel into Syria at two locations on Thursday afternoon, in an attempt to establish new settlements.

The Israel Defense Forces launched a pursuit after the suspects, eventually locating all of them and bringing them back to Israel.

In all, some 13 activists crossed the border — five in the Mount Hermon area and eight near the Syrian village of Bir Ajam in the Golan Heights.

The activists used angle grinders to breach the border fence, which they then crossed inside vehicles, according to defense sources.

“IDF troops rushed to the two locations, and shortly afterward the civilians were found,” the military said, adding that some “clashed” with the troops.

The military said all of the suspects were “safely returned to Israeli territory under IDF escort,” and then handed over to the police.

“The IDF strongly condemns the incident and emphasizes that it is a grave incident constituting a criminal offense that endangers both civilians and IDF soldiers,” the army added.

Israeli settler activists cross the border into Syria, November 27, 2025. (Halutzey Habashan)

In August, members of the same group of activists, calling themselves the “Bashan Pioneers” — after the biblical name for the Golan Heights and southern Syria region — briefly crossed into Syria before being evacuated back to Israel by the IDF.

In a statement issued shortly after the activists crossed the border on Thursday, the Bashan Pioneers said that establishing settlements in southern Syria “is an important key to maintaining good control of the area, as well as preventing withdrawals.”

“We call and demand: allow the Jews who now wish to settle in the area to do so, and make history in the lands of the Bashan!” the radical group wrote.

Since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, the IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria, mostly within the UN-patrolled buffer zone, with Jerusalem arguing this was necessary to defend the country amid the country’s takeover by groups with jihadist ideologies.

Israel’s regional military conflicts since October 7, 2023, have fueled far-right settler activism in several arenas. In Gaza, activists have increasingly lobbied for resettling the Strip following the war there. In Lebanon and Syria, smaller fringe groups advocate for a nation spanning wider regional territory.

In December, a group of settler activists entered Lebanese territory — in an area under Israeli control at the time — in an attempt to set up a settlement there, before being cleared out by the IDF.

Support for Jewish settlement in Syria and Lebanon remains extremely low among the Israeli public, and no politicians or major figures beyond fringe settler groups have called for their establishment.

No settlements were established in southern Lebanon during Israel’s 1982–2000 occupation of the area, when the IDF maintained a security zone there.

However, the idea of reestablishing settlements in Gaza has received relatively broad support from much of the Israeli far-right, most notably Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, both of whom have repeatedly advocated for the idea, as well as the backing of multiple politicians in the ruling Likud party.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that Israel has any intention to resettle the Gaza Strip or even to keep troops stationed there permanently.