The Israeli military said Sunday that it had taken up new positions in a buffer zone between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights as it prepared for potential chaos following the lightning-fast fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
While the Israel Defense Forces was increasing its presence in the areas as a precaution, and said it was on high alert, there were no major changes to guidelines for residents of the Golan Heights.
“The IDF has deployed troops in the buffer zone and in a number of areas that are necessary to defend, in order to ensure the security of the communities in the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
Syrian media reports said Israel had launched artillery shelling in the area.
The latest moves come following a fresh assessment and “the possibility of gunmen entering the buffer zone,” the IDF said. “We emphasize that the IDF does not intervene in the events taking place in Syria.”
It marked the first time since the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement was signed that Israeli forces have taken up positions inside the buffer zone between Israel and Syria. The IDF has entered the zone briefly on several occasions in the past.
The disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria concluded the Yom Kippur War.
The IDF said its deployment of troops to the buffer zone was a temporary measure, but it could end up staying there for a long time depending on the developments. The military said it would remain there until things were clear in Syria.
The deployment was carried out in coordination with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which is tasked with the buffer zone. UNDOF members were, as of Sunday morning, staying in their positions.
Israel had sent warnings to the rebel forces in southern Syria not to approach the buffer zone.
On Saturday, the IDF intervened with artillery shelling to repel gunmen who tried to attack a UNDOF post near the Syrian village of Hader, close to the border. Rebel forces announced they had taken the border regions of Quneitra and Daraa earlier in the day.
Also on Sunday morning, the IDF’s 98th Division with the Paratroopers and Commando brigades was dispatched to the Golan Heights, bolstering its already shored-up forces in the area.
The IDF also imposed closed military zones in the Golan Heights on the Israeli side of the border with Syria.
The military said agricultural areas near Merom Golan, Ein Zivan, Buq’ata and Khirbet Ein Hura would be off-limits for civilians until the end of the month.
As the regime collapsed overnight, Israel launched airstrikes in Syria, hitting weapons factories, including chemical weapons sites near Damascus, apparently to prevent them from falling into the hands of rebel groups, according to Syrian media reports.
Additionally, Israel hit a Hezbollah convoy as the terror group withdrew from the Syrian city of Qusayr along the border with Lebanon shortly before rebel forces seized it, Syrian army sources told Reuters.
They told Reuters that at least 150 armored vehicles carrying hundreds of fighters left the city in phases. Qusayr has long been a major supply route for the terror group’s arms transfers and flow of fighters in and out of Syria since Hezbollah seized it in 2013 during the early phase of the civil war.
Israel has repeatedly hit Hezbollah weapons depots and underground fortifications it had built in the city.
The military said it was tracking weapons in Syria and working to prevent them from reaching Hezbollah or any other elements that could threaten Israel.
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