Syrian Troops Amassing Near Mt. Hermon?

SYRIAN TROOPS SPOTTED AMASSING NEAR ISRAEL’S MT HERMON BORDER

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

Syrian media reported seeing Syrian Army Troops on the Lebanese side of the Hermon Mount on Monday night. 

With its summit straddling the border between Syria and Lebanon Mount Hermon was captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. After becoming the northernmost point in Israel and therefore of huge strategic significance, the Hermon was recaptured by Syria at the outset of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It was recaptured by Israel after fierce fighting by the Golani brigade. The pre-Yom Kippur War Syrian-controlled sector was returned to Syria after the war. Syria maintained an extended occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005. The top of the mountain is controlled by UN forces. 

The area has become very active lately. On Friday, four Syrian family members were killed by falling debris from the Syrian air-defense system reacting to an alleged Israeli airstrike. On January 13, airstrikes also attributed to Israel targeted dozens of sites in the Deir al-Zor region of eastern Syria resulting in 25-50 casualties. Two weeks earlier, an attack attributed to Israel targeted a munitions factory in north-western Syria near the city of Masyaf.

Mount Hermon is composed of a cluster of mountains referred to in Arabic as Jabal al-Shaykh. Israel controls the apex which is less than 10 percent of the mountain. The summit marks the border between Israel and Lebanon at its summit. The very top of the mountain is controlled by UN forces.