Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israeli forces will stay in a buffer zone on the Syrian border, and specifically on the summit of Mount Hermon, “until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s security”.
Mr Netanyahu made the comments from the mountain’s snow-dusted summit – the highest peak in the area – which is located on Syria’s side of the border.
This was apparently the first time a sitting Israeli leader entered the Syrian territory.
Mr Netanyahu said he had been on the summit of Mount Hermon 53 years ago as a soldier, but the summit’s importance to Israel’s security has only increased given recent events.
Israel seized a swathe of southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, calling it a buffer zone, in the days after Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was ousted by rebels.
Israel’s capture of the buffer zone has sparked condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating a 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.
Mr Netanyahu visited the buffer zone with defence minister Israel Katz, who said he instructed the Israeli military to quickly establish a presence including fortifications, in anticipation of what could be an extended stay in the area.
“The summit of the Hermon is the eyes of the state of Israel to identify our enemies who are nearby and far away,” Mr Katz said.
Israeli forces moved to control a roughly 155-square-mile, demilitarised, buffer zone in Syrian territory.
The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was created by the UN after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
A UN force of about 1,100 troops had patrolled the area since then.
Israel still controls the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed – a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Mount Hermon’s summit is divided between the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Lebanon, and Syria.
Only the United States recognises Israel’s control of the Golan Heights.
