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Israel has seized more Syrian territory and attacked chemical weapons sites in response to a group led by Islamist Tahrir al-Sham that overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that the country’s army was continuing to seize “high ground” in Syria after tanks and infantry moved into a previously demilitarized buffer zone.
The moves come as regional powers scramble to respond to HTS’s stunning 12-day offensive.
Russia, a long-time supporter of Assad’s regime that has naval and air bases in Syria, said it was “making every effort to get in touch with the country’s new rulers.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow needs to have a “serious dialogue” about its military presence in Syria, RIA Novosti reported on Monday.
Countries opposed to the regime also fear its collapse could lead to further instability in the region.
The United States has launched dozens of attacks against Islamic State targets in Syria, while Turkish-backed Syrian militants battle Kurdish forces in the north of the country.
A large swath of the Israeli-Syrian border is governed by the 1974 armistice agreement, which includes a significant United Nations peacekeeping force to monitor the agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the border area on Sunday, said the deal “collapsed” after Syrian forces abandoned positions and Israeli forces took over the positions “to ensure that no hostile forces take root on Israel’s borders.”
Israel has long been a sworn enemy of Assad’s regime, which is allied with Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, but direct conflicts between the two countries have been extremely rare since the 1980s.
Katz said on Monday that Israeli forces would establish a “safe zone” outside the old buffer zone and clear it of “heavy strategic weapons and terrorist infrastructure.”
As part of the invasion, Israeli commandos on Sunday captured a strategic Syrian military position on the highest point in the Golan Heights, known as Mount Sheikh.
Katz added that Israel would engage with locals in the region, including the Syrian Druze community, and continue to crack down on Iranian weapons smuggling to Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has also been beefing up border defenses, digging trenches to thwart any mobile infiltration attempts, while making clear that anyone approaching Israeli positions will be shot at.
“Israel is taking advantage and deterring [the Syrian side] Now,” said a person familiar with the matter. “Israel does not want to intervene, but due to the proximity [of what’s happening across the border in Syria] This is Israel’s interest.
Israel carried out air strikes on suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria over the weekend in an effort to destroy Assad’s regime before it falls into rebel hands, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday.
People familiar with developments in Syria said that Israeli warplanes have conducted multiple sorties targeting such “strategic weapons” since the Syrian opposition offensive began two weeks ago. The person added that this capability “should not fall into the wrong hands.”
On Monday, Katz directed the military to continue strikes “all over Syria” to destroy “surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets and land-to-sea missiles.”
Multiple airstrikes were reported across the country on Sunday and Monday, including at security complexes and air bases around Damascus, as well as in the southern cities of Daraa and Suweida.
Commenting on Israel’s first incursion into Syrian territory in more than fifty years, Netanyahu said: “This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”
Additional reporting by Max Seddon in Berlin
