Netanyahu Says Israeli Troop Deployment in Syria Buffer Zone ‘Temporary’

Israeli troops deployed to a buffer zone along the Syrian border will be there temporarily to prevent terrorists from launching attacks against Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

“The collapse of the Syrian regime created a vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone established by the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

“Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with Oct. 7-style attacks,” the statement continued, referring to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of the Jewish state from Gaza to the south last year. “That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border.”

Netanyahu’s office concluded, “This deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”

Following the collapse of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime this past weekend, the Israeli military launched operations to eliminate much of Syria’s strategic weapons arsenal and secure the buffer zone along Israel’s northeastern border amid uncertainty about the future of Syria.

Assad fled Damascus on Sunday as a coalition of rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s five-decade rule. The deposed leader, who has been accused of war crimes during his crackdown on rebel forces since 2011, was a partner of Russia and allied with Iran, which for years has used Syrian territory to send weapons to its terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.

However, many Western observers have expressed concern about the leading Syrian rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with Al Qaeda and which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Turkey, and the UN.

This week, Israel conducted more than 350 aerial strikes targeting a wide range of military assets in Syria, with the aim of preventing them from falling into the hands of Islamic terrorists.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to establish full control over the once-demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, which was established under the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem that ended the Yom Kippur War. He also announced the establishment of a temporary demilitarized “defensive zone” beyond the buffer zone in southern Syria aimed to prevent terrorist threats.

Israel has denied claims that it has gone beyond these areas further into Syria. Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel has no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs but would take action as needed to defend itself and ensure its security.

The Israeli premier expressed similar sentiments during an in-person meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who was in the Middle East to discuss the situation in Syria and the prospects of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

According to a readout from Netanyahu’s office, he “made it clear” during discussions with Sullivan that Israel “would do its utmost to defend its security against any and all threats; to this end, he ordered the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to temporarily take control of the buffer zone in Syria, until there is an effective force that will enforce the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement.”

Netanyahu also “raised the issue of the vital need to assist the minorities in Syria and prevent terrorist activity against Israel from Syrian territory,” the readout stated.

After the meeting, Sullivan defended Israel‘s operations in Syria, saying the Jewish state had a right to defend itself from security risks.

“What Israel is doing is trying to identify potential threats, both conventional and weapons of mass destruction, that could threaten Israel, and, frankly threaten others as well,” Sullivan told a press conference in Tel Aviv.

The White House national security adviser added that power vacuums could give room for terrorist groups to grow and that the new power in Syria could be hostile to Israel and other countries in the region.

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