Peter Beaumont
The Guardian / December 18, 2024
Israeli PM on visit to Mount Hermon says troops will remain until ‘another arrangement’ for security is found.
Jerusalem – Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli troops will occupy a recently seized buffer zone in Syria for the foreseeable future, as efforts continue to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister made the remarks, which come in defiance of international calls to withdraw from the newly captured territory, on Tuesday night while touring Mount Hermon – known to Syrians as Jabel Sheikh.
Israeli troops occupied the positions on the mountain when they moved into a demilitarised zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after the collapse earlier this month of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria.
While officials have previously described the move as a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of Israel’s borders, they have given no indication of when their troops might be withdrawn.
The Israel defence minister, Israel Katz, last week ordered Israeli troops to prepare to remain on Mount Hermon over the winter.
Netanyahu, in a statement issued by his office, said: “We are holding this assessment in order to decide on the deployment of the IDF in this important place until another arrangement is found that ensures Israel’s security.”
“It makes me nostalgic,” he added. “I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers in a patrol of the Israel Defense Forces. The place hasn’t changed, it’s the same place, but its importance to Israel’s security has only grown in recent years, and especially in recent weeks with the dramatic events that are happening here below us in Syria.”
Israel captured a significant part of Syria’s Golan Heights during the six day war in 1967, with that territory being regarded as being occupied by most countries.
The new positions seized by the IDF comprise a demilitarised buffer zone in Syria created following the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Netanyahu has a long history of using arguments about Israel’s security to justify prolonged occupation and his resistance to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The comments follow the approval of a plan by Netanyahu to expand settlements in the part of the Golan Heights that it already controls, a move that could double the area’s population.
Israel’s moves to rapidly cement its presence in the Syria buffer zone comes amid continuing efforts to reach a ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Hamas in Gaza.
The CIA director, William Burns, was reported to be meeting the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Doha as part of the negotiations that have picked up pace again in recent days.
Amid the increased contacts, there has been mixed messaging about the proximity of any deal, with some officials talking up progress while others have pointed to potential sticking points that have hampered previous attempts to negotiate a phased ceasefire and release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails.
While Israeli officials have suggested that Hamas appears to want a deal and that gaps between the two sides have closed, Israel and the Palestinian group have not yet agreed on key issues including how many hostages – and which ones – should be released in the first phase and the identities of Palestinian prisoners being sought for release.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian official close to the negotiations said mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses but he said Israel had introduced conditions that Hamas rejected.
Hamas is also reportedly concerned that any deal agreed under the auspices of the Biden administration might not survive the swearing-in of Donald Trump on 20 January, opening the way for renewed Israeli assaults in Gaza after the first phase is completed.
Commenting on the talks, Hamas said it “affirms that, in light of the serious and positive discussions taking place today in Doha under the auspices of our Qatari and Egyptian brothers, reaching an agreement for a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange is possible if the occupation ceases to impose new conditions”.
Several rounds of talks of negotiations have failed to replicate an agreement reached in late November 2023, in which 105 hostages were released in a weeklong truce.
Israel believes that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October 2023 remain in the Gaza Strip, including the bodies of at least 34 captives.
Peter Beaumont is a senior international reporter
