We don’t know how the rebels will act, IDF commander tells ToI inside southern Syria
Times of Israel joins troops at Syrian army post that was abandoned with fall of Assad’s regime; IDF has quickly implemented plans originally drawn up for a potential Iran-backed attack
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
KWDANA, Syria — Just a few days ago, Syrian soldiers loyal to the Bashar al-Assad regime were stationed atop this hill, overlooking both southern Syria and Israeli towns in the Golan Heights.
Late Friday night, Syrian troops at the Tel Kwdana military post packed up most of their gear, stood in formation and drove away from the site without a fight as rebel insurgents made rapid progress toward Damascus.
The Israel Defense Forces, stationed on the other side of the border, observed the rapid withdrawal of the Syrian army from Tel Kwdana and all of its other positions in the area and decided to act quickly.
By early Sunday morning, the first IDF tanks and troops pushed into southern Syria, seizing control of the former Syrian army posts located within a buffer zone that has existed between the countries since 1974, but without firing a shot.
Col. Benny Kata, who heads the 474th Golan Regional Brigade, told The Times of Israel and other reporters on Wednesday that his forces and others pushed into the former Syrian posts following “the quick developments over the weekend, where the regime fell,” and because “what has risen, is something unclear.”
The Syrian government fell early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family, after a sudden rebel offensive sprinted across government-held territory and entered the capital in 10 days.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest rebel group, is the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria and is regarded by the US and others as a terrorist organization. HTS, which the Western intelligence community is familiar with, pushed into the capital Damascus, and other cities in central Syria.
But unlike with HTS, the rebel situation in southern Syria, on Israel’s border, is far less clear.
A rebel uprising took place in southern Syria by a coalition of various Druze tribes and opposition groups going by the name of Southern Operations Room. The rebel coalition was only established in the days leading up to the fall of Assad, and little is known about their leadership and ideology.
“There were Syrian soldiers here up until the weekend, and they fled. We were then forced to push forward here and in other places and take control over the area, to defend the Golan Heights residents and the border,” Kata said.
He said that the IDF was working to “prevent jihadi groups from reaching here and breaching the fence, just like we prepared until now for the Iranian axis and their proxies.”
Israel in the past repeatedly accused Assad’s military of actively assisting the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group to entrench itself on the border, including specifically at the Tel Kwdana post.
The IDF had plans to push into the buffer zone in the event of an Iran-backed attack on Israel from Syria. Still, now, with the fall of the regime, they are being activated against a different potential threat, the rebel groups, which ironically are bitter enemies of Hezbollah and the Iranian axis.
The rebel groups on the border “are something different; we don’t know yet how they will act, and that’s why we took the key positions,” Kata said.
The IDF has said that its deployment to the buffer zone and strategic positions in the area was a defensive and temporary measure amid the situation in Syria, and it would remain there until it clears up.
Beyond the buffer zone
The military has acknowledged also operating on the Syrian side of the buffer zone in several areas but has stressed that was due to the landscape and terrain, and not because it was carrying out an offensive.
Military sources have said that the IDF may remain in the buffer zone for “a long time,” possibly years. But, if it is ordered to leave, they said that IDF could do so within a short period.
The 235-square-kilometer buffer zone was established in the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria, which concluded the Yom Kippur War and has been manned for decades by UN peacekeepers. However, Israel has said that with the fall of the Assad regime, it considered the agreement void until order is restored in Syria.
Tel Kwdana — located on the edge of the town of the same name — is technically east of the buffer zone by several hundred meters, but the IDF considers it a strategic point in the area and has therefore positioned itself there. The hill overlooks the Israeli towns of Keshet and Yonatan in the Golan Heights.
The Syrian army post at Tel Kwdana appeared relatively primitive, with bunkers, trenches, barracks, and guard posts. Aside from several anti-tank missiles and piles of documents and trash, the position had been mostly cleared out by the former regime’s army.
Now, the IDF has turned the site into its own army post, with a few upgrades such as generators, water tanks, toilets, and mobile showers for the troops.
The village below it, Kwdana, appeared to be largely unbothered by the army’s actions. Civilians were seen walking around as IDF vehicles drove by.
“Kwdana, like other villages, we [strive] for the minimum amount of friction with the local population. There haven’t been any unusual incidents… we don’t disturb their daily routines,” Kata said.
The regional brigade commander also hinted that the military was working on contacts with the leaders of the populace in southern Syria, noting an IDF humanitarian assistance program to Syrian nationals near the border between 2013 and 2018.
“If we need to talk, to get to know the people who have power here, we know how to do this,” he said.
