Soldiers of the Israeli army’s infantry 6th brigade take part in an assault coordination exercise near Moshav Kidmat Tsvi in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on December 7, 2023, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues with Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Israel has ordered its forces to create a “sterile defence zone” in southern Syria that would be enforced without a permanent Israeli presence as it tightens its hold along the line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday (December 10, 2024).

He gave no details but said the zone, would “prevent the establishment and organization of terror in Syria”.

“We will not allow this, we will not allow threats to the state of Israel,” he said in a statement following a visit to a naval base in the northern Israeli port of Haifa.

Earlier, a military spokesperson said Israeli troops remained in the demilitarized buffer zone in Syrian territory created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war as well as “a few additional points” outside the separation area.

Syrian sources claims incursion by Israeli army

But he denied that forces had penetrated Syrian territory significantly beyond the zone, after Syrian sources said the incursion had extended to within 25 km (15 miles) of the capital Damascus.

“IDF forces are not advancing towards Damascus. This is not something we are doing or pursuing in any way,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, the military spokesperson, told a briefing with reporters.

“We are not involved in what’s happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens,” Shoshani said.

Israeli jets have struck a string of targets across Syria since the weekend, aiming to ensure Syrian military equipment, including combat aircraft, missiles and chemical weapons, does not fall into rebel hands.

As part of the wave of strikes, Katz said Israeli missile ships had destroyed the Syrian military fleet in an operation on Monday night.

Israeli media reported that the air force had carried out as many as 250 strikes. The military declined to confirm the number but did confirm it was seeking to stop Syrian military weapons from being seized and used by potential enemies.

“We’re acting to prevent lethal strategic weapons from falling into hostile hands. We’ve been doing this for years now in different ways and in different situations, and we’re doing it now,” Shoshani said.

Fall of Assad government

The flight of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday ended over five decades of his family’s rule.

Israeli troops then moved into the demilitarised zone inside Syria, including the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon that overlooks Damascus, where it took over an abandoned Syrian military post.

Israel, which has just agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon following weeks of fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, calls the incursion a temporary measure to ensure border security.

But it remained unclear how far beyond the designated buffer zone its troops had stopped.

Three security sources said on Tuesday the Israelis had advanced beyond the demilitarised zone. One Syrian source said they had reached the town of Qatana, several kilometres (miles) to the east of the zone and just a short drive from Damascus airport.

Israel welcomed the fall of Assad, an ally of its main enemy Iran, but has reacted cautiously to the leading rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. HTS has roots in Islamist movements including al Qaeda and Islamic State though it has sought for years to moderate its image.

Israel has said it does not seek conflict with Syria. But as in southern Lebanon following the ceasefire with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, Israeli leaders have said they will intervene whenever they feel Israel’s security is threatened.

“We will not allow an extremist Islamic terrorist entity to act against Israel across its border,” Katz said.

People gather to take a picture with Nadim Gemayel, Christian politician and son of the assassinated president-elect Bashir Gemayel, as they celebrate after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Beirut, Lebanon December 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is forcing the Biden administration and the incoming Trump team to confront intensifying questions about the possibility of greater conflicts across the Middle East.

Follow More: Syria war LIVE updates: Russia grants asylum to Assad and his family ‘on humanitarian grounds’

President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Assad had fled his country, which his family had ruled for decades, because close ally Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, “was not interested in protecting him any longer.”

U.S. on Syria war

Those comments on Trump’s social media platform came a day after he used another post to decry the possibility of the U.S. intervening militarily in Syria to aid the rebels, declaring, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.” The Biden administration had no intention of intervening, according to President Joe Biden’s national security adviser.

Biden was meeting with his national security team at the White House on Sunday. He was expected to make public comments later in the day.

The U.S has about 900 troops in Syria, including forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group.

Assad’s fall adds to an already tense situation throughout much of region on many fronts, including Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and its fragile cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, 2025, made a connection between the upheaval in Syria and Russia’s war in Ukraine, noting that Assad’s allies in Moscow, as well as in Iran, the main sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, “are in a weakened state right now.”

Syrian rebels

The Syrian opposition that brought down Assad is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The Biden administration has designated the group as a terrorist organization and says it has links to al-Qaida, although Hayat Tahrir al-Sham says it has since broken ties with al-Qaida.

Vice President-elect JD Vance, a veteran of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, wrote on own social media Sunday to express skepticism about the insurgents.

“Many of ‘the rebels’ are a literal offshoot of ISIS. One can hope they’ve moderated. Time will tell,” he said, using another acronym for the group.

Trump has suggested that Assad’s ouster can advance the prospects for an end to fighting in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February 2022.

Trump wrote that Putin’s government “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine” and the Republican called for an immediate cease-fire, a day after meeting in Paris with the French and Ukrainian leaders.

Daniel B. Shapiro, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said the American military presence will continue in eastern Syria but was “solely to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and has nothing to do with other aspects of this conflict.”

“We call on all parties in Syria to protect civilians, particularly those from Syria’s minority communities to respect international military norms and to work to achieve a resolution to include the political settlement,” Shapiro said.

“Multiple actors in this conflict have a terrible track record to include Assad’s horrific crimes, Russia’s indiscriminate aerial bomb bombardment, Iranian-back militia involvement and the atrocities of ISIS,” he added.

Shapiro, however, was careful not to directly say Assad had been deposed by the insurgents.

“If confirmed, no one should shed any tears over the Assad regime,” he said.

U.S. journalist in Syria

As they pushed toward the Syrian capital of Damascus, the opposition freed political detainees from government prisons. The family of missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice renewed calls to find him.

“To everyone in Syria that hears this, please remind people that we’re waiting for Austin,” Tice’s mother, Debra, said in comments that hostage advocacy groups spread on social media. “We know that when he comes out, he’s going to be fairly dazed & he’s going to need lots of care & direction. Direct him to his family please!”

Tice disappeared in 2012 outside Damascus, amid intensification of what became a civil war stretching more than a decade.