CNN
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Israel wasted no time after Bashar al-Assad’s fall to bomb all of the Syrian navy belongings it wished to maintain out of the rebels’ arms – hanging almost 500 targets, destroying the navy, and taking out, it claims, 90% of Syria’s identified surface-to-air missiles.
But it’s Israel’s seize of Syria’s highest peak, the Mount Hermon summit, which will show among the many most lasting prizes – although officers have insisted that its occupation is short-term.
“This is the best place within the area, wanting upon Lebanon, upon Syria, Israel,” stated Efraim Inbar, director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). “It’s strategically extraordinarily vital. There is not any substitute for mountains.”
The summit of Mount Hermon lies in Syria, in a buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces for 50 years till final weekend, when Israeli troops took management of it. Until Sunday, the summit was demilitarized and patrolled by UN peacekeepers – their highest everlasting place on this planet.
Israel’s protection minister, Israel Katz, on Friday ordered the navy to arrange for the cruel situations of winter deployment. “Due to developments in Syria, it’s of immense safety significance to take care of our management over the summit of Mount Hermon,” he stated in an announcement.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has superior past the summit, so far as Beqaasem, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from the Syrian capital, in line with Voice of the Capital, a Syrian activist group. CNN couldn’t independently verify that declare. An Israeli navy spokesperson this week denied that forces had been “advancing towards” Damascus.
Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in southwestern Syria that abuts Mount Hermon, within the 1967 battle and has occupied it since. Syria tried to retake the territory in a shock assault in 1973, however failed, and Israel annexed it in 1981. The occupation is against the law below worldwide regulation, however the United States acknowledged Israel’s declare on the Golan in the course of the Trump administration.
Israel has for many years held some decrease slopes of Mount Hermon, and even operates a ski resort there, however the peak remained in Syria correct.
“We don’t have any intention to intervene in Syria’s inner affairs,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a video days after Israel bombed a whole bunch of Syrian targets and seized the demilitarized buffer zone. “But we definitely intend to do all the pieces essential to deal with our safety.”
Mount Hermon’s summit is an amazing asset below Israel’s management. At 9,232 ft (2,814 meters), it’s increased than any level in Syria or Israel, and second to just one peak in Lebanon.
“People generally say within the age of missiles, land will not be vital – it’s merely unfaithful,” Inbar stated.
In an instructional paper printed in 2011, he wrote of the numerous benefits offered by Mount Hermon.
“It permits the usage of digital surveillance deep into Syrian territory, giving Israel early-warning capability in case of an impending assault,” he wrote. Advanced technological alternate options like airborne surveillance, he argued, was merely not comparable. “In distinction to an set up on a mountain, these can’t carry heavy gear equivalent to massive antennas, and they are often shot down by anti-air missiles.”
The peak is simply over 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) from Damascus, which signifies that management of its Syrian foothills – additionally now in IDF arms – put the Syrian capital inside vary for artillery cannons.
The Israeli prime minister has stated his “hand is prolonged” to the brand new authorities in Syria. But within the post-October 7 world, he and different nationwide safety heavyweights have made clear they aren’t going to take any possibilities.
“Mostly, it’s a consolation for us,” retired Brigadier General Israel Ziv stated of Israel’s operations in Syria. “We have discovered what occurred in different nations when you’ve gotten a terror group that captures navy gear.”
Netanyahu has additionally insisted that the occupation is short-term. “Israel is not going to allow jihadi teams to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7 fashion assaults,” he stated. His standards for withdrawing, he stated, was a Syrian power “that’s dedicated to the 1974 settlement could be established and safety on our border could be assured.”
It is unclear when that could be achieved.
Whether the navy withdraws “is a political choice,” Inbar stated. “The navy would love to remain there.”
Mike Schwartz and Tim Lister contributed to this report.
