Israel tells Syria its soldiers to remain in occupied territory: Report

Israeli officials conveyed the message to Syria’s new leadership that their forces will not pull out from the usurped regions, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

“We will not accept any attempt by the militants to reach southern Syria. Once it appears that a responsible party is in office in Syria, we will consider transferring the buffer zone to it. But as long as there is not such a thing, we will continue to worry about our own security,” read the message.

This comes while the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group and Syria’s de facto ruler, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, asserted about a week ago that his group “will not engage” in a conflict with Tel Aviv.

Israeli military forces captured the buffer zone in the Golan Heights hours after armed groups took control of the Syrian capital of Damascus on December 8, which was led to the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The Israeli army occupied the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel refused to withdraw its forces or return the territory amid demands by the UN Security Council Resolution 242.

The Tel Aviv regime set up about 30 illegal settlements in the occupied Golan over the past decades, accommodating more than 25,000 settlers.

The buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan region was created by the United Nations after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. A UN force of about 1,100 troops – the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) – had patrolled the area since then.

Earlier, Julani stated Syria’s new administration would abide by the terms of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement with Israel even after the fall of Assad’s government, calling on the international community to ensure that Israel would uphold it.

Israeli troops have now occupied the summit of Jabal al-Shaykh which provides an observation point for areas in Syria and Lebanon. It rises to 9,232 feet (2,814 meters) and is the highest point on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

They have advanced beyond the so-called buffer zone toward Damascus, while the regime’s warplanes have conducted hundreds of aerial assaults on Syria.

Since the downfall of Assad, Israel has wiped out Syrian naval vessels, sea-to-sea missiles, helicopters and planes, including the entire fleet of MiG-29 jets, and stockpiles of ammunition in attacks on at least five air bases.