Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli military to occupy territory it captured on Mount Hermon in Syria following the downfall of Bashar al-Assad until at least the end of 2025, Israel’s Channel 12 has reported.
After Assad fled Syria on December 8, Israel invaded southern Syria, taking control of a buffer zone that separated the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria’s territory. The Israeli military has also captured territory beyond the buffer zone.
The Channel 12 report said the at least year-long occupation of southern Syria is significant because it essentially opens up a “new front” for the Israeli Defense Forces.
Netanyahu visited Israeli troops on Mount Hermon on Tuesday and made it clear they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon, saying the occupation would continue until a “new arrangement” is made.
Following the downfall of Assad, the Israeli cabinet also approved a plan to expand settlements in the area of the Golan Heights that’s been occupied since 1967. The purpose of the plan is to significantly increase the Jewish settler population.
“Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time,” Netanyahu said in a statement on the cabinet’s approval of the plan. “We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it.”
Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, a move not recognized by any country until the Trump administration did so in 2019. The buffer zone Israel seized was established under a 1974 ceasefire agreement, which created a UN peacekeeping force to patrol the area, known as UNDOF.
