IDF On Alert Along Border With Syria

IDF remains on alert on its border with Syria

ANNA AHRONHEIM 

Despite the quiet of Israel’s northern border, the IDF remains alert and ready for any violation of sovereignty by the Syrian army and Hezbollah.

The IDF has struck several Syrian outposts in the Golan Heights since May, all of them built in the demilitarized zone.

According to Lt.-Col. Idan Nir, commander of the 71rst Armored Battalion whose troops destroyed the post, “they wanted to test us and built it to see what we would do. But the moment it violates an agreement and our sovereignty we will act to destroy it.”

The post, Nir said, was to collect intelligence on the IDF and troop movement. It was destroyed late at night by explosives placed by troops under Nir’s command, infantry troops and Oketz forces.

The decision to use ground forces instead of targeting the post by the air was intentional, Nir said.

“We chose the time and method,” he said. “We sent a message that such moves won’t be allowed. We will not tolerate any violations of our sovereignty by Syria.”

According to the officer, the Syrians only returned once to the site and have not rebuilt the post. And should they rebuild it, or build any others in Israeli territory, “we will act again. We have a strong army that remains alert. The ground forces are always ready and able to get anywhere, whenever they are needed,” Nir asserted.

“We won't allow them to operate like that.”

Iran has increased its influence in the Syrian Arab Army by training senior commanders and helping in force buildup.  Hezbollah has also increased their presence on the Golan Heights including near the demilitarized buffer zone. 

While the IDF does not respond to most foreign reports, it has admitted to carrying out hundreds of airstrikes as part of its “war-between-wars” (known in Hebrew as MABAM) campaign to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the entrenchment of Iranian forces in Syria, where they could easily act against Israel.

Although Israel usually refrains from targeting terror operatives to try to avoid subsequent retaliation, some strikes ascribed to the Jewish state have killed several Hezbollah operatives in southern Syria on the Golan Heights, where the group has been trying to establish a permanent military presence as part of the group’s Golan Project.

But according to a December report by the ALMA Research and Education Center, Hezbollah’s presence in southern Syria is much larger than previously revealed, with some 58 sites in the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra and Daraa, where the terror group’s Southern Command and Golan Project have been deployed.

According to Nir, the IDF is working to make sure that Iran and Hezbollah don’t have full control over southern Syria.

“We don't want Hezbollah to be embedded into southern Syria...that it doesn't become like south Lebanon.”