Katz: IDF soldiers should remain in Syria

Israeli forces should remain in Syria as a buffer between “jihadist enemies and the residents of the Galilee and the Golan,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a visit to the north on Tuesday.

“Our role is to defend the citizens of Israel against every threat—and that is what we will do,” Katz declared after he received an intelligence and operational briefing at the Israel Defense Forces Northern Command base in Safed.

Katz “praised the offensive activity of the command’s personnel across the various arenas " during the meeting, which also included IDF Deputy Chief Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, OC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo and other commanders.

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.

Jerusalem 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, attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week.

“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.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denounced as “fake news” a Saudi news report on Tuesday that Netanyahu in September refused a U.S.-mediated proposal due to Damascus’s opposition to a humanitarian corridor into the Sweida region, where regime-backed militias have slaughtered members of the Druze minority group during clashes.

Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa were preparing to sign the agreement on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, but the Jewish state pulled out.

According to the PMO, “there were contacts and meetings organized by the U.S., but no agreements and understandings with Syria were ever reached.”

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda terrorist who also goes 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 his territory.

Accordingly, Katz told lawmakers last month that the Jewish state is not expected to make peace with Damascus, as hostile forces, among them Iranian-backed Houthis, were planning attacks on the Golan Heights.

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, tweeted on Tuesday that a new war with Damascus 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.”

Meanwhile, Syrian media on Tuesday published footage that apparently showed armed Syrian regime forces passing through an Israeli military checkpoint to break up clashes in the Quneitra area near the border.

Three Syrians were reportedly wounded by IDF fire on Tuesday during clashes that developed near the border with Israel when troops tried to arrest a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operative in the Quneitra area.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit did not immediately respond to a JNS request for comment on the video footage on Wednesday morning.

The riot took place just a few hundred feet from Israeli territory, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was touring the border with his Israeli counterpart, Ambassador Danny Danon, Ynet reported.

The two envoys did not witness the exchange directly, but Danon was reportedly briefed by the local IDF commander and informed Waltz.

The threat posed by Iran and its allies on the borders of the Jewish state is “clear and immediate,” Danon stated following the northern tour. “In contrast to the propaganda and falsehoods presented at the U.N., today we saw the reality on the ground—Hezbollah’s efforts to build up its capabilities and the challenges unfolding in Syria,” the envoy said.