New details have emerged of Israel’s occupation of a Golan Heights buffer zone since Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad fell from power this month. Assad’s fall also coincided with a change in U.S. language on Israeli activity in the zone from several weeks prior, VOA has learned.
A spokesperson for U.N. peacekeeping operations told VOA in a Monday interview that the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has identified at least 10 locations occupied by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the buffer zone as of December 15.
The zone, which the United Nations calls an Area of Separation, is on the Syrian side of a 1974 ceasefire line that had divided Israeli and Syrian-administered territory following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Under the ceasefire, the area was intended to separate, or be free of, Syrian and Israeli forces.
UNDOF has called Israel’s latest actions in the zone a “violation” of the ceasefire agreement.
The zone is 75 kilometers long, spanning from the peak of Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmouk River along the Jordanian border in the south. It varies in width from 10 kilometers in the center to just 200 meters in its southern sector. The area is home to 11 Syrian towns and villages, with tens of thousands of residents.
Since 1974, UNDOF has monitored Syrian and Israeli ceasefire compliance from around 50 positions inside the zone and just outside it.
The U.N. spokesperson said the IDF has severely constrained UNDOF’s freedom of movement between those positions since December 7 but added that Israeli troops’ posture toward UNDOF has “for the most part not been aggressive.” An IDF spokesman contacted by VOA confirmed it has instructed UNDOF to avoid travel on roads during IDF movements.
The U.N. spokesperson also said UNDOF has not observed the IDF building hard-walled accommodations for troops in the locations they have occupied. Rather, images published by the Israeli government showed troops positioned alongside green tents constructed at the summit of Mount Hermon as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site on Tuesday.
UNDOF is aware of Israeli troops installing “mobility impairment devices,” or barriers, on some roads within the buffer zone, the U.N. spokesperson said. The IDF spokesman confirmed to VOA that the barriers are a security measure intended to slow the approach of unknown vehicles toward Israeli positions.
In a Tuesday briefing, the U.N. secretary-general’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, provided more details on how Israel’s occupation of the buffer zone has impacted UNDOF.
“UNDOF used to conduct approximately 55 to 60 daily operational tasks and logistics activities. It is currently restricted to three to five essential logistics movements per day, which significantly affects its operations,” Dujarric said.
Netanyahu, in a social media video posted from his visit to the Mount Hermon summit, said the IDF will remain in what he called an important place for Israel’s security “until another arrangement is found” ensuring that security.
Israel has said its occupation of the buffer zone is a temporary measure to prevent Syrian armed groups that ousted Assad from threatening Israeli territory.
Retired Israeli Colonel Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told VOA that Israel’s newly established control of the Mount Hermon summit and of commanding geographical features of the largely abandoned city of Quneitra and areas further south enable the IDF to see deeper into Syrian territory.
“This is crucial for intelligence gathering, both visual and otherwise,” said Lerman, a former deputy national security adviser.
In his first public comment on Israel’s occupation of the buffer zone that began eight days earlier, Syria’s main rebel leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, told Britain’s The Times newspaper in a Monday interview that Israel must pull back to its previous positions.
"We are committed to the 1974 agreement. ... We do not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else, and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks,” said Sharaa, whose HTS militia is a U.S.-designated terror group.
Syrian-born political analyst Rime Allaf, an Austria-based advocate of democracy in her native country, told VOA the new authorities in Syria have been much more focused on rebuilding the country after 13 years of war than on Israel’s expanded control over the Golan Heights.
Prior to its occupation of the buffer zone, Israel had spent several months digging a trench along the Golan Heights ceasefire line as part of a nationwide effort to fortify its borders against future terror attacks like that perpetrated by Hamas from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
UNDOF had publicly complained to Israel about the trench construction, accusing Israeli forces of straying several meters into the Area of Separation at several points. Responding to a VOA inquiry on November 15, the State Department said it had received the UNDOF complaints of "unauthorized military personnel and equipment inside the Area of Separation.” It criticized those activities as “encroachments [that] degrade the security situation.”
Three weeks later, after the fall of Assad, U.S. officials changed their language regarding Israeli activities in the buffer zone, defending the Israeli presence as consistent with Israel’s right to self-defense and important for its security. They also said the U.S. continues to support the terms of the 1974 Israeli-Syrian ceasefire agreement and wants to see Syria’s territorial integrity upheld.
Asked by VOA if the State Department stood by its earlier criticism of the Israeli trench construction along the ceasefire line, a spokesperson responded on December 12 by pointing to a department press briefing that discussed Israel’s buffer zone activities but not the trench issue specifically.
The U.S. recognized the Golan Heights ceasefire line as Israel’s border with Syria in 2019. The rest of the international community has not done so, with most nations labeling the Israeli-administered part of the Golan Heights as occupied Syrian territory.
Allaf said many Syrians do not see Israel as having acted in self-defense by occupying the buffer zone.
“I’m on the phone with people in Syria every day, and most of them are outraged about the Golan Heights because nobody has done anything to threaten Israel. They see Israel as acting illegally and opportunistically to expand its territory in a way that creates more tension with Syria,” she said.
Lerman said that while Israel’s occupation of the buffer zone may be prolonged as Syria’s new rulers try to form an internationally recognized political entity, he does not anticipate an eventual Israeli annexation of the territory.
“Once there is a legitimate regime in Syria, Israel can trade away the buffer zone for a stable arrangement, perhaps short of a peace deal, that would enable us to concentrate on other missions,” he said.
