Israeli army announces deployment in Syrian buffer zone

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The Israeli military said on Sunday it had deployed troops to a demilitarized buffer zone in southwestern Syria bordering the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Damascus fell to rebels.

The day before, as Islamist-led rebels advanced rapidly through Syria, Israel said its soldiers had entered the buffer zone patrolled by the United Nations to help peacekeepers repel an attack.

On Sunday, the army announced a troop deployment there, citing “the possible intrusion of armed people into the buffer zone.”

“Following recent events in Syria… the IDF (Army) has deployed troops in the buffer zone and several other locations necessary for its defense to ensure the security of communities in the Golan Heights and citizens of Israel,” it said a military declaration.

The Israeli armed forces “will continue to operate for as long as necessary to maintain the buffer zone and defend Israel,” it said.

The statement stressed that the Israeli military “does not interfere in the internal events in Syria.”

Since the rebel coalition led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began its renewed offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces on November 27, Syrian government troops have abandoned positions near the Israeli-held Golan, according to a war monitor.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Saturday that forces had withdrawn from positions in Quneitra province, which includes part of the Golan Heights.

Most of the plateau has been occupied since 1967 by Israel, which later annexed it, although this was not recognized by most international communities.

In 1974, the buffer zone was established separating Israeli-held and Syrian areas and where UN peacekeepers have been stationed ever since.

A U.N. peacekeeping spokesman said Saturday that UNDOF personnel “observed unidentified armed individuals in the separation area, including about 20 who entered one of the mission’s positions in the northern part of the separation area.”

The Israeli army said it was “helping UN troops repel the attack.”

The UN spokesman said that “peacekeepers continue to conduct their mandated activities in the Golan.”

On Sunday, Lebanese media reported an Israeli attack on Quneitra targeting an arms depot. The Israeli military declined to comment.

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said schools in the northern Golan Heights, in an area that includes four Druze cities, would move to online learning, and also declared a “military closed zone” on agricultural land in the area.

At the start of the Syrian war, which began in 2011 after the suppression of anti-government protests, rebel forces and jihadist groups had taken over parts of Quneitra province.

In August 2014, Islamist rebels attacked UNDOF, taking more than 40 Fijian peacekeepers hostage and holding them for almost two weeks.

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