Israel Seizes Strategic Peak of Mount Hermon from Syria

Israel Seizes Strategic Peak of Mount Hermon from Syria

Joel B. Pollak

Israel’s Army Radio reported Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had seized the peak of Mount Hermon, the highest mountain in the region, as a precaution against the advance of Syrian rebels as the Assad regime collapsed.

The mountain, covered in snow during the winter months, is the highest in the region, and a key strategic point. Israel has a military base on the mountainside, but Syria has long had a military base on the peak of the mountain itself.

The move marks the first time Israeli troops have been on the peak of the mountain since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

In that conflict, Syria and Egypt surprised Israel with an attack on the Jewish faith’s holiest day. Syrian troops took over an Israeli base lower down on the mountainside on the first day of the war, October 6, killing many troops from the elite Golani brigade.

An Israeli counterattack on October 8 failed, fighting uphill. But Israel took the peak in a fierce battle from October 21 to 22 in which paratroopers landed by helicopter at the peak and fought their way downwards as another force ascended the mountain, trapping the Syrians and taking both the Israeli and Syrian positions.

Israel eventually returned the Syrian base at the peak as a part of a deconfliction agreement at the end of the war.

Israel has cautiously welcomed the demise of the Assad regime, a fierce enemy for more than five decades. However, Israel stressed the danger of both sides in the Syrian fight, noting that the rebels include Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists.

As Breitbart News reported, the IDF moved tanks into the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria on Sunday as a deterrent, and set up checkpoints on its own territory in the Golan Heights to prevent terrorist infiltration from Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the Israeli-Syrian border with Foreign Minister Israel Katz, delivered a statement calling the fall of the Assad regime “a historic day for the Middle East,” but noted that it offers both opportunities and dangers. He said that Israel hoped for “neighborly relations and peaceful relations” with Syria.

There is speculation Israel may occupy portions of Syrian territory near its Golan Heights border as a buffer zone.