The Israeli minister of military affairs says the regime’s troops, who seized a “buffer zone” inside the strategic occupied Golan Heights after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, will stay there indefinitely.

Israel continues to occupy Syrian territories beyond the Golan Heights, notably the Syrian side of Mount Hermon just 20 kilometers from Damascus, which it captured days after the dramatic fall of the capital to the former leader of al-Qaeda in Syria, Abu Mohammed al-Julani.  

“Every morning when al-Julani opens his eyes at the presidential palace in Damascus, he will see the Israeli forces watching him from the peak of the Hermon, and remember that we are here and in the entire security area of southern Syria, to protect the Golan and Galilee residents against any of his threats and those of his … friends,” Israel Katz said during a visit to a new Israeli military outpost on the mountain on Tuesday.

Mount Hermon, known as Jabal al-Shaykh in Arabic, is a huge cluster of snowcapped mountain peaks towering above the Syria-Lebanon border.

It overlooks the Damascus countryside as well as the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Katz also said the Israeli military “is prepared to stay in Syria for an unlimited amount of time.”

“We will hold the security area in Hermon and make sure that all the security zone in southern Syria is demilitarized and clear of weapons and threats,” he said. 

The remarks came hours after Israeli warplanes carried out a series of strikes on former Syrian army barracks and outposts near the capital Damascus and in southern Dara’a province.

“Last night we acted forcefully against military targets. We attacked over 40 targets in southern Syria to implement the policy we announced and warned about — to thwart any threat to Israel,” Katz added.

Syrian security sources said at least six aerial raids hit a military position belonging to the former Syrian army’s Artillery Regiment 89 on the surroundings of Jabab town in the north of Dara’a.

At least another eight struck the 12th Brigade base in the city of Izraa.

There were no immediate reports available on possible casualties or the extent of damage caused.

Israeli military forces captured the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights hours after armed groups took control of the Syrian capital of Damascus on December 8, 2024.

Since then, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria’s now-defunct army.

Israel has been widely and vehemently condemned over termination of the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria, and exploiting the chaos in the Arab nation in the wake of Assad’s downfall to make a land grab.

The buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was created by the United Nations after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.  A UN force of about 1,100 troops had patrolled the area since then.