The presence of the IDF on the Syrian Mount Hermon – and in the general buffer zone – protects Israel from a range of Syrian, Hamas, and Iranian threats, Defense Minister Israel Katz told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, as he stood next to a Syrian outpost taken by the IDF in December, following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
“There are a series of threats. This regime is a jihadist regime. It put on a mask, but then it removed its mask. It tries to get a following” around the world to reduce economic sanctions and become re-accepted into the good graces of Western nations, Katz told the Post.
The defense minister said, “We knew about this in advance and we got ready,” justifying the IDF’s presence in Syria, though Israel has emphasized it has no territorial claims to the country.
On December 7-8, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, leading Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, toppled the Assad regime. Since then, it has actively promoted itself as a more tolerant, moderate, and Western-looking Syria, which respects Syrian minorities – and would never threaten Israel.
However, Israel quickly seized a buffer zone in southern Syria as Sharaa was taking power, out of concern that he, as a former member of al-Qaeda, along with some of his jihadist allies, might talk sweetly to the West for the moment, but then attack Israel in the future once it would let its guard down.
Katz stated, “There are also attempts by Iran and Hezbollah to smuggle weapons” through Syria to reconstruct the Lebanese terror group’s arsenal to return its ability to attack and threaten Israel.
These two threats are widely known, but Katz noted to the Post another much lesser talked-about threat – the Palestinian one. “They have lots of refugee camps [in the area],” which are being used to conceal attempts to formulate attacks on Israel, he said.
Palestinians within Syria
In fact, though rarely discussed in the media, there are approximately 450,000 Palestinians in Syria, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). While many of them have no particular interest in Israel, Hamas and other terrorist groups have tapped into the poverty and hopelessness that many Palestinians in Syria have suffered during their many decades there to draw new recruits to carry out terror attacks against the Jewish state.
“We are here and the IDF is here” as long as needed to prevent any of these groups from threatening Israel from Syrian territory, Katz told the Post.
The defense minister and military officials have given indications that the IDF could remain in Syria for years, with a withdrawal date from the buffer zone depending on threat conditions on the ground.
Katz said of Sharaa, “every morning he opens his eyes in the presidential palace in Damascus, he will see the IDF observing him from the heights of the [Syrian] Hermon and will remember that we are here and in the entire southern Syria area.”
He added, “we will strengthen the connection between the local [Syrian] residents and soon, on the 16th of this month, we will start [the program] of [Syrian] Druze working in the Golan Heights” within Israel.
Defense sources estimate that there are around 500,000-600,000 Syrian Druze in the area of the Druze and Hermon mountains, around 37,000 of which are within the Israeli buffer zone.
Katz added that overnight between Monday and Tuesday, the air force attacked more than 40 targets in southern Syria in order to follow through on Israel’s statements that it will remove potential threats from southern Syria.
According to Syrian reports, these were military targets of the previous Assad regime in the villages of Jabab and Izra, in the Daraa province of southern Syria. The reports said that these were targets that previously belonged to the 12th Brigade and the 89th Battalion of Assad’s army.
According to sources, the reason the Israel Air Force didn’t attack these sites in December during a massive strike on Syrian military capabilities – but was rather attacking them now – has to do with threat prioritization.
In other words, the IDF considered these radar systems a threat for some time, but those items that the air force struck in December were an even larger threat.
There was also an implication – which top Israeli officials have made generally – that there can and will likely be more such attacks on Syrian military capabilities going forward, though Israel is trying hard not to have any friction with Sharaa’s forces.
Military sources have said that the Syrian Hermon and the nine positions the IDF established in the Syria buffer zone allow Israel to observe much more closely if Hezbollah is trying to smuggle weapons, including in one of its critical areas of Baalbek deeper into Lebanon.
Regarding Iran, Katz said at a press conference that Israel would make sure that Tehran does not get a nuclear weapon, and that it was in tight coordination with US President Donald Trump regarding that threat.
Regarding Gaza, Katz said there were three major levers of pressure that Israel could bring on Hamas to hopefully get it to release the 59 hostages it is still holding captive.
One lever would be to slow and close off humanitarian aid and electricity, which Israel has done over the last week or so. A second lever would be the threat of a potentially imminent re-invasion of Gaza which could be more intense than before.
Media commentators have discussed the possibility of a rapid invasion into all of Gaza – instead of the more gradual staged invasion that Israel did from late 2023 to mid-2024 – as well as heavier air power and artillery use against urban areas after civilians are told to evacuate to the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.
The third lever is the full backing of Trump for all the options – as opposed to the Biden administration, which was constantly pressing Israel to use less force and to increase humanitarian aid, said Katz.
Regarding the firing of R.-Adm. (ret.) Daniel Hagari as IDF spokesman, the defense minister claimed he had no involvement and that this decision was made entirely by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir.
However, there is widespread reporting that Zamir let Hagari go under the influence of Katz, with the only debate being whether Katz explicitly told him not to keep or promote Hagari or whether Katz’s preference was made clear to Zamir, but more passively.