Israeli troops occupied the hill after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel will remain on the strategically important Mount Hermon near the border with Syria until another solution is found, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. TASR informs about this according to Wednesday’s Reuters report.
The hill, located on Syrian territory in a buffer zone established by the United Nations (UN), was occupied by Israeli troops shortly after Syrian rebels toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this month.
The Minister of Defense ordered the soldiers to stay on the mountain
The move was described by Israeli officials as a limited and temporary measure to secure Israel’s borders. However, they did not say when the troops could be withdrawn. Defense Minister Yisrael Kac last week ordered soldiers to prepare to remain on Mount Hermon during the coming winter.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu attended a security meeting on top of Mount Hermon. “We are conducting this assessment so that we can decide to deploy army troops to this important location until another solution is found that will ensure Israel’s security,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement released Tuesday evening.
Several countries and the United Nations criticized Israel’s move to the buffer zone, which was created after the Arab-Israeli war in 1973, as a violation of international agreements and demanded the withdrawal of troops.
Mount Hermon (2814 m above sea level) on the Lebanese-Syrian border is the highest peak in Syria and lies approximately 40 kilometers from Damascus. It is of high strategic value to Israel, as the Syrian capital is within easy range of artillery fire from there. Israeli troops can also watch from the mountain for activities in Lebanon’s Bikaa Valley, which is populated mainly by Shiites and is considered a stronghold of Iran-backed Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
