Ultra-Orthodox troops of the Israel Defense Forces’ Hasmonean Brigade were deployed to the security zone in southern Syria for the first time, the military said on Thursday.
Following military exercises in the area, the Haredi infantrymen carried out targeted searches, “during which they gathered intelligence with the aim of removing threats and ensuring the security of the civilians of the State of Israel, and in particular the residents of the Golan Heights.”
The ultra-Orthodox brigade operated under the command of the 401st Brigade’s 52nd Armored Battalion and alongside the 474th Brigade, it said, adding that the 210th “Bashan” Division remains deployed in the region.
The Hasmonean Brigade “will continue to operate across all arenas,” the IDF statement added, vowing to allow all “ultra-Orthodox soldiers to maintain their way of life.”
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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that while Israel remains ready to negotiate a new security deal with Damascus, it will “stand by its principles” to prevent a repeat of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
“After Oct. 7, we are determined to defend our communities along our borders, including the northern border,” the prime minister declared.
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-Jolani, 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 expanded buffer zone.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday renewed the mandate for a long-standing peacekeeping force along the Israel-Syria border through the end of June 2026.
The force, which operates from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, was established by the 1974 agreement. UNDOF has a mandate to maintain the ceasefire and supervise the buffer zone inside Syrian territory.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington and Jerusalem “have an understanding regarding Syria,” while declining to elaborate, as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida on Monday.
Al-Sharaa “has been with us all the way,” said the president, adding that “I’m sure that Israel and him will get along,” and “I will try and make it so that they do get along.”
