Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights will be Israel’s “forever” comments that came a day after Israel captured territory inside Syria.
Israel first took the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981, a move not recognized by any other country until the Trump administration did so in 2019.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend, President-elect Donald Trump for acceding to my request to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in 2019,” Netanyahu said at a press conference on Monday, according to his office.
“Today, everyone understands the great importance of our presence there on the Golan, and not on the foothills of the Golan,” Netanyahu said. “The Golan Heights will forever be an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” the premier added.
A day earlier, Netanyahu was in the Golan Heights and announced that he ordered the Israeli military to seize a buffer zone between the occupied Israeli territory and the rest of Syria that’s been patrolled by UN peacekeepers since 1974 under an Israel-Syria ceasefire deal.
According to Israeli media, Israeli troops also captured several areas inside Syria that are beyond the buffer zone, including the Syrian side of the Mount Hermon mountain range. The land grab also came with massive Israeli airstrikes across Syria, which Israeli officials framed as being necessary to prevent hostile groups from acquiring weapons left behind by the now-deposed Syrian government.
According to The Cradle, Israeli strikes since Sunday hit 250 targets across Syria, hitting military bases, air defenses, ammo depots, warehouses, and other military assets. Israeli media reported it as the heaviest Israeli bombing in the country since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
