Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Wednesday completed an operation near Al-Rafid, in the southern Syria buffer zone, to apprehend a suspected Islamic State–affiliated terrorist, the military said on Saturday.
During the operation, troops located and confiscated weapons. The suspect was transferred to Israeli territory for further processing.
“IDF troops remain deployed along the Golan Heights border to protect the State of Israel and its citizens,” the statement added.
On Dec. 9, Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a visit to the north that Israeli forces should remain in Syria as a buffer between “jihadist enemies and the residents of the Galilee and the Golan.
“Our role is to defend the citizens of Israel against every threat—and that is what we will do,” he declared.
After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the IDF seized control of parts of southern Syria, expanding a buffer zone and maintaining a presence amid ongoing clashes and strikes.
Israel remains ready to negotiate a new security agreement with the Syrian regime but will “stand by its principles” to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Dec. 2.
Israel’s policies are aimed at “preventing the entrenchment of terrorists and hostile activities against us, protecting Druze allies and ensuring that the State of Israel is safe from ground or other attacks,” he added.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda terrorist who also went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has demanded a full return to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War and an Israeli withdrawal from the buffer zone.
Accordingly, Katz told lawmakers on Nov. 26 that, given the current circumstances, the Jewish state is not heading toward peace with Damascus anytime soon, as hostile forces, among them Iranian-backed Houthis, are planning attacks on the Golan Heights.
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli warned on Dec. 9 that war with Syria was “inevitable,” responding to anti-Israel chants at a Syrian Army parade.
In the footage, Syrian soldiers could be heard chanting, “Gaza, Gaza our rallying cry, victory and steadfastness, night and day. We rise against you, enemy, we rise, from mountains of fire we make our way. From my blood I forge my ammunition, from your blood, rivers will flow.”
