Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has instructed Israeli troops to prepare to spend the winter on Mount Hermon, a key site overlooking Damascus, adding to indications that Israel’s presence in Syria would last for some time.
Mr. Katz said “Due to what is happening in Syria, there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon.”
The order suggests that Israeli troops who moved into a buffer zone inside Syrian territory as well as a “few additional points” following the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government are likely to remain.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Thursday that the forces would remain until an adequate force was in place to execute the Separation of Forces Agreement, which was signed following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has described the deployment as a limited and temporary step to preserve the security of its borders, but it is unclear when it would consider the situation in Syria stable enough to withdraw its personnel.
Mr Katz said the severe winter weather on Mount Hermon, a peak of 2,800m that straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon, made special preparations for a prolonged stay by Israeli troops a necessity.
A number of countries, including France and the United Arab Emirates, have condemned Israel’s incursion, calling it a breach of the agreement that followed the Arab-Israeli war. But the United States has offered its support, saying the move was necessary for Israel’s self-defence.
In addition to sending soldiers into the buffer zone, Israel destroyed the majority of the Syrian military’s arsenal of weapons and ammunition in hundreds of air and naval strikes this week, claiming the move was intended to prevent the equipment from falling into the hands of hostile forces.
While Israel cheered the ouster of Dr. Assad, an ally of its arch adversary Iran, it remains skeptical of the rebel organizations that deposed him, many of which have ties to Islamist groups such as Al-Qaeda.
