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Israeli defense minister consolidates IDF control over Syrian Golan Heights

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar insists IDF’s new security zone on Syrian side of the Golan Heights is ‘limited, temporary,’ and intended only to prevent incursions from the Syrian side.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s military has been ordered to establish a security zone on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, consolidating Israeli control over the area, after rebels – led by an Islamist faction – seized control of the government over the weekend.

According to Hebrew media reports Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz (Likud) has instructed the IDF to deepen Israeli control over the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, after Israeli tanks and soldiers moved into the strategic area Sunday morning.

Shortly after rebel forces, led by the radical Islamist Tahrir al-Sham movement, captured Damascus and forced President Bashar Assad to flee, Israeli forces crossed the demarcation line separating the Israeli and Syrian sides of the Golan Heights, taking control of the buffer zone established after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Israel directly controls 500 square miles of the strategic plateau it captured in 1967, which the Knesset annexed in 1981 – a move which decades later was recognized by the United States.

Syria has controlled the remaining 200 square miles since a series of separation of forces agreements after the 1973 war, with 91 square miles included in a demilitarized zone, where no military forces were permitted, and a United Nations observer force was deployed.

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On Sunday, Israeli forces were deployed to the demilitarized zone, and additionally seized control of parts of the Syrian Golan outside of the DMZ, including the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.

Katz reportedly ordered all areas of the Syrian Golan Heights placed under Israeli control to be turned into a security zone, which IDF forces would ensure will remain free of hostile forces, terrorist infrastructure, and Iranian weapons smuggling.

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar (New Hope) said at a press conference Monday that Israel’s presence in the Syrian Golan is “limited” and “temporary.”

“The only interest we have is the security of Israel,” Sa’ar emphasized.