Following the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Israel carried out widespread air strikes against what it said were strategic targets in Syria, moved tanks into the Golan Heights demilitarised zone for the first time in 50 years and seized commanding military outposts on the Syrian side of the border, establishing a buffer zone over the border.
Among the sites targeted in the Israeli air strikes, according to Syrian reports, were military bases and weapons storage sites across the country, a Syrian air force base, air defence systems, missile warehouses and production facilities in the south of the country, and the al-Mazeh military airport in Damascus. Israeli planes also hit a major security complex in the Syrian capital, along with a research centre where Israel claims Iranian scientists had developed missiles.
Israel said the attacks were aimed at preventing weapons and facilities falling into the hands of the rebels.
Tanks crossed the border into the Golan Heights demilitarised zone, close to the city of Qunietra, for the first time since 1974. The deployment was carried out in co-ordination with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, which is tasked with maintaining the buffer zone.
The Israel Defense Forces warned residents of five towns in southern Syria to stay at home “until further notice” due to military activity.
Further north, the Israeli army seized control of the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, the commanding mountain ridge in the Golan plateau, to prevent the rebels from conquering the area. This act has specific symbolic value for the Israeli public. For years, visitors who took a cable car ride to the highest Israeli peak on the occupied Golan looked through binoculars at the Syrian army outposts which overlooked the Israeli positions. Now, temporarily at least, the entire area is under Israeli control.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, visiting the border on Sunday, said the separation of forces agreement between Israel and Syria, signed in 1974 after the 1973 Israeli-Arab Yom Kippur War, has now collapsed.
“Syrian soldiers abandoned their positions,” he said. “We ordered the Israeli army to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel. This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”
“This is a historic day for the Middle East,” he added, which “offers great opportunity but also is fraught with significant dangers. This collapse is the direct result of our forceful action against Hizbullah and Iran, Assad’s main supporters. It set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny.
“We send a hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria: to the Druze, to the Kurds, to the Christians and to the Muslims who want to live in peace with Israel.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said he “supports expanding the security zone until the situation clarifies”, and added that Israel must act at the same time to build a regional coalition against the Iranian axis.
National Unity party chair Benny Gantz, a former defence minister and top general, said during a visit to the Golan Heights on Sunday that Israel must continue to pressure Iran, so that “Syria and Lebanon will be freed from the Iranian yoke”.
“We need to look beyond the Syrian arena. Iran is a fragile crutch, Hizbullah has been severely hurt and its influence has weakened in both Lebanon and Syria,” he said. “The Abraham Accords should be expanded to create a barrier against Iran,” he added, referring to the peace agreements signed between Israel and moderate Arab states.
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