An Israeli tank at a staging area near the Israeli border with Syria, in the Golan Heights, northern Israel, January 9, 2024. (Photo: Michael GiladiFlash90)
The Israeli army went on high alert in northern Israel, as the Syrian regime of the al-Assad family collapsed on Sunday morning amid a furious rebel onslaught on the capital Damascus from several directions.
After rebel groups captured the whole of southern Syria, including the border with the Israeli Golan Heights, the IDF stated this morning that its troops had crossed the border to create a buffer zone in the demilitarized zone separating Syria and Israel.
“In accordance with the situational assessment following the recent events in Syria, including the entry of armed personnel into the buffer zone, the IDF has deployed forces in the buffer zone and in several other places necessary for its defense, to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel,” the IDF stated.
Syrian media reported that Israeli tanks were spotted taking up forward positions in the area of Quneitra, and that Israeli artillery opened fire on a target near the village of Breikah.
The Israeli military leaders stressed that it is not “interfering with the internal events in Syria,” but vowed to “continue to operate as long as necessary in order to preserve the buffer zone and defend Israel and its civilians.”
After the IDF deployed two additional battalions to the Golan Heights over the weekend, on Sunday, Israeli media reported that the elite 98th Division, which includes the Paratrooper and the Commando brigades, was rushed from the Lebanese sector to the Syrian border.
Army Radio’s military correspondent Doron Kadosh called this move “a particularly massive reinforcement of forces, unprecedented in recent years in the Golan Heights.”
“Two elite divisions of the IDF moved to capture the Syrian border, which now has a new neighbor on the other side – the Syrian rebels,” Kadosh added.
The IDF Northern Command announced that standby squads in villages near the border, which had only recently been demobilized, would be called up again.
IDF Home Front Command decided that schools would remain closed only in four Druze settlements located in the northern Golan Heights on Sunday. The army also deployed roadblocks throughout the Golan and declared all agricultural areas adjacent to the Syrian border as closed military areas.
Meanwhile, foreign media reported that the Israeli Air Force struck an additional site in the Syrian regime containing advanced weapons, aiming to prevent it from falling into rebel hands.
On Sunday morning, Netanyahu’s spokesman instructed all ministers not to give interviews or comment on the situation in any other way, especially emphasizing social media posts, without his expressed authorization.
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