On February 23, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for southern Syria to remain demilitarized in the wake of the collapse of the Bashar al Assad regime. “We will not allow forces from the HTS [Hayat Tahrir al Sham] organization or the new Syrian army to enter the area south of Damascus,” Netanyahu said at a graduation ceremony for Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers.
An HTS-led offensive in early December led to the fall of the Assad regime, and members of the group play key roles in the new Syrian military and government. Syrian interim President Ahmad al Sharaa led HTS before he took power in December and was appointed the president of a transition government at the end of January.
Netanyahu’s comments came a day before Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told the EU-Israel Association Council that the new government in Damascus “is a Jihadist Islamist terror group from Idlib that took Damascus by force.”
Taken together, the statements appear to sketch out a developing Israeli policy toward the new government in Damascus. When the Assad regime collapsed on December 8, Israel moved forces into a buffer zone on the Golan Heights that consists of an area along the 1974 ceasefire lines. Israeli troops also took over the top of Mount Hermon, whose summit had been controlled by Syria. Since then, the IDF has carried out numerous ground raids to confiscate weapons that it considered a threat. The IDF has established nine posts in the border area.
Since December 8, the IDF has also carried out airstrikes in Syria targeting former regime military assets, such as helicopters and naval vessels, and struck smuggling routes. For instance, on February 22, the IDF said it “conducted a strike on border crossings on the Syria-Lebanon border through which the Hezbollah terrorist organization has attempted to smuggle weapons into Lebanon.”
Netanyahu and Saar have not fully spelled out Israel’s new policy. However, Netanyahu specified on February 23 that “we demand the full demilitarization of southern Syria, in the Quneitra, Daraa, and As Suwayda provinces, of the forces of the new regime.” Quneitra is the Syrian area next to the Golan, named for a town that has been deserted since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Daraa province borders Jordan and is east of Quneitra. Suwayda is around 30 miles from Israel’s Golan border and home to Syria’s Druze minority, where a new Druze coalition recently emerged.
It is unclear what the extent of “demilitarized” will mean precisely, given Syria’s new security forces do not possess much conventional military hardware. For example, recent footage of the new government’s forces deploying in northern Syria showed them using pick-up trucks.
In his February 24 statement, Saar called for Syria to have a federal system and respect “different ways of life” and the autonomies of various groups. He said the current government is not on the right track. “Not only are they not inclusive, they are exacting vengeance on Alawites. They are harming the Kurds. We will not compromise the security on our border. Hamas and PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] are acting in Syria to create another front against Israel there.”
In response, Syrian officials condemned Israel’s incursion into Syria, apparently a reference to the moves Israel made since December 8. In addition, there have been protests against Netanyahu’s comments in southern Syria.
“Trade unions, professional and civil activities participated on Tuesday in a Mass demonstration in Al-Karamah Square in Suwayda city to express their rejection and condemnation of the recent Israeli statements and its interference in Syria’s internal affairs,” the state Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on February 25.
The New Arab reported that demonstrations against Netanyahu’s statement also occurred in Khan Arnabeh in Quneitra province and Nawa and Busra al Sham in Daraa province on February 24. Khan Arnabeh is within the buffer zone along the Golan border. Busra al Sham is a key municipality in Daraa province because it is the hometown of Ahmad al Awda, a key Syrian rebel figure who continues to play a central role in southern Syria.
Israel’s recent messaging comes as events move quickly in Syria. Sharaa hosted a National Dialogue Conference on February 25 to discuss the country’s future. The conference issued a statement warning against the partition or “surrender” of any part of Syria. At the same time, developments in the Druze area and US activity at Tanf garrison, around 130 miles northeast of Suwayda, illustrate the range of activity by disparate groups in southern Syria over the last month.
