Syria rebels take areas near Israel border; IDF warns them not to ‘turn in our direction’
IDF helps UN forces repel attack by gunmen in Syrian Golan, holds drill simulating rapid deployment, and sends more troops to its side of Golan; Netanyahu convenes security cabinet
Syria’s rebel forces continued their lightning advance through the country over the weekend, saying Saturday that they had seized the regions of Quneitra and Daraa near the border with Israel, as the Israel Defense Forces vowed a strong response in the event that they “turn in our direction.”
The Israeli military said Saturday evening that it was helping United Nations forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights repel an attack by gunmen, near the town of Hader, close to the Israeli border.
“The IDF is now assisting the UN force to repel the attack,” the military said.
The terse statement came after the military announced Saturday that it was further bolstering its forces in the Golan Heights, after already announcing on Friday that it was deploying additional ground and air troops there.
“The reinforcement of troops will enable the strengthening of defenses in the area, and the preparation of the troops for various scenarios in the area,” the military said Saturday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, was convening the security cabinet on Saturday evening to discuss the developments in Syria, according to a statement from his office.
Israel is reportedly preparing for the possibility that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime may collapse, amid the dramatic advances by rebel forces in recent days. CNN reported Saturday that the US was seeing an increased possibility that the regime could collapse within days, citing a source who said the president was nowhere to be found in Damascus and may possibly have fled.
Last weekend, rebels seized Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, in the north. Within days, they’d also taken the crossroads city of Hama, in the center of the country, and on Saturday they reportedly entered the key city of Homs and said they were starting to encircle the capital Damascus.
Rebel forces also claimed to have taken control of the Quneitra and Daraa areas — on the Israeli border — from government forces over the weekend.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, during a visit to the Syrian border Saturday, said the military was monitoring the rebel forces to make sure “they don’t turn in our direction.”
“We are very closely following what is happening. The main emphasis is to see the Iranian exit [from Syria]… and the second thing is to see the local elements taking over the area, what they are doing, how they behave, how they are deterred, and [making sure they] don’t get confused and turn in our direction,” he said.
“If there is such confusion, there is an offensive response and behind it a very, very strong defensive response,” Halevi added.
The IDF chief held an assessment Saturday with top officers at the 210th “Bashan” Regional Division, which is tasked with the Golan Heights area, during which he approved battle plans, the military said.
In the meeting, Halevi “emphasized the high preparedness in attack and defense, the concentration of forces at the border, and the continued monitoring of developments,” according to the IDF.
Halevi also “emphasized that we do not interfere in events in Syria,” but rather only “work to thwart and prevent threats in the region, and prepare plans for the various possibilities.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Saturday evening that Israel was not intervening amid the developments in the Syrian civil war, but that Jerusalem wa concerned about violations of a 1974 disengagement agreement between the countries.
“Over the past day, armed forces have entered the buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border with Israel, and have attacked the UNDOF forces in the area,” said Sa’ar in a statement.
“Israel is concerned about violations of the disengagement deal with Syria from May 1974,” which pose a threat to Israeli security, particularly in the Golan Heights, he added.
The IDF on Friday wrapped up a drill that was carried out in light of the developments in Syria, simulating a fast deployment of forces due to a sudden event.
The drill, led by the IDF Operations Directorate, was carried out in the northern Jordan Valley and southern Golan Heights, close to the border with Syria.
It drilled a rapid deployment of ground and air forces, and assessed their “response time and their reaction to an emerging incident in real-time,” according to the military.
Troops from training programs and various Israeli Air Force squadrons participated in the drill, some of whom have remained in the Golan Heights area “to reinforce defensive missions along the Syrian border,” the military added.
US envoy Amos Hochstein, in Qatar on Saturday, said the developments in Syria would make it harder for Iran to supply the Hezbollah terror group with weapons there, adding that Iran appeared to be withdrawing its support from Syria, though he didn’t clarify how.
Hochstein negotiated a US-brokered Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement in Lebanon that went into effect on November 27, after more than a year of daily rocket and drone attacks by the Iran-backed terror group and Israeli strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah attacked, unprovoked, on October 8, 2023.
The US envoy said Saturday he believes Hezbollah has been weakened, but not eliminated, and added that the terror group “may not be strong enough to fight Israel or to support Assad, but it doesn’t take a lot of strength to be a dominant presence in Lebanon so you can also be weakened and still strong at the same time, when it comes to the Lebanese context.”
He added that the Syrian army’s defeats in the past week were “not that big of a surprise,” highlighting the army’s limited power in comparison with events during the country’s civil war 13 years ago when “it had two powers [Iran and Russia] coming to its aid in a very strong way.”
