JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered Syrian territory on Tuesday throughout a safety tour of the buffer zone seized by Israel within the days because the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
It was apparently the primary time a sitting Israeli chief entered Syrian territory. Israel seized a swath of southern Syria alongside the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, calling it a buffer zone, within the days after Assad was ousted by rebels.
Israel nonetheless controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria through the 1967 Mideast conflict and later annexed — a transfer not acknowledged by many of the worldwide neighborhood.
Netanyau and Protection Minister Israel Katz visited the snow-dusted summit of Mount Hermon, the very best peak within the space, which is positioned inside Syrian territory.
Katz added that Israel will keep a presence within the Syrian buffer zone “for as long as is required” and had instructed the Israeli army to shortly set up a presence together with fortifications, in anticipation of what might be an prolonged keep within the space.
“The summit of the Hermon is the eyes of the state of Israel to identify our enemies who are nearby and far away,” Katz mentioned.
Israeli forces have been transferring to regulate a roughly 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized buffer zone in Syrian territory. The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was created by the U.N. after the 1973 Mideast conflict. A U.N. drive of about 1,100 troops has patrolled the realm since then.
Mount Hermon is split between the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Lebanon, and Syria. Solely the USA acknowledges Israel’s management of the Golan Heights.