The Israel Defense Forces admitted that its troops had entered Syrian territory, but told the BBC that reports of tanks approaching Damascus were “false”.
It said that some troops were stationed there separation zone which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, “and then a few additional points.”
“When we talk about a few additional points, we are talking about a separation area or a buffer zone area nearby,” IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani told the BBC.
BBC Verify has posted an image of an IDF soldier standing just over half a kilometer outside the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, Syria, on a hillside near the village of Qudana.
on monday The Israeli military has released photos of its soldiers who have moved from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the demilitarized buffer zone in Syria, where UN peacekeepers are based.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that IS’s seizure of Syrian positions in the buffer zone was a “temporary defensive position until an appropriate arrangement is found”.
“If we can establish good neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces that are emerging in Syria, that is our wish. But if we don’t do that, we will do everything we can to protect the state of Israel and the border of Israel,” he said on Monday.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry condemned Israel’s entry into the buffer zone, accusing it of an “occupation mentality” at a “sensitive period when there was an opportunity to achieve the peace and stability that the Syrian people have wanted for many years.”
This buffer zone, also known as the Separation Zone, was created as part of Israel’s 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria to keep Israeli and Syrian forces separated following Israel’s earlier occupation of the Golan Heights.
Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan in 1981. The move was not recognized internationally, although the US did so unilaterally in 2019.
