Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli troops will occupy a recently seized buffer zone in Syria for the foreseeable future, as intense efforts continued to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister made the remarks on Tuesday night while touring Mount Hermon – known to Syrians as Jabel Sheikh – as a report in Israel suggested the Israel Defense Forces had been ordered to hold positions there until the end of 2025.
Israeli troops occupied the positions on the mountain when they moved into a demilitarised zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after the collapse earlier this month of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria.
Israel has faced mounting calls to move its troops from the buffer zone, most recently from the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, who called the occupation of the Golan Heights a violation of international law.
While Israeli officials have previously described the move as a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of Israel’s borders, they have given no indication of when their troops might be withdrawn.
Netanyahu, in a statement issued by his office, said: “We are holding this assessment in order to decide on the deployment of the IDF in this important place until another arrangement is found that ensures Israel’s security.”
“It makes me nostalgic,” he added. “I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers in a patrol of the Israel Defense Forces. The place hasn’t changed, it’s the same place, but its importance to Israel’s security has only grown in recent years, and especially in recent weeks with the dramatic events that are happening here below us in Syria.”
Israel captured a significant part of Syria’s Golan Heights during the six day war in 1967, with that territory being regarded as being occupied by most countries.
The new positions seized by the IDF comprise a demilitarised buffer zone in Syria created following the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Netanyahu has a long history of using arguments about Israel’s security to justify prolonged occupation and his resistance to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The comments follow the approval of a plan by Netanyahu to expand settlements in the part of the Golan Heights that it already controls, a move that could double the area’s population.
Israel’s moves to rapidly cement its presence in the Syria buffer zone come amid continuing efforts to reach a ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Hamas, and as the IDF issued a further order for residents of Bureij in central Gaza to leave the area in anticipation of a renewed offensive.
The CIA director, William Burns, was reported to be meeting the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Doha as part of the negotiations that have picked up pace again in recent days.
Amid the increased contacts, there has been mixed messaging about the proximity of any deal, with some officials talking up progress while others have pointed to potential sticking points that have hampered previous attempts to negotiate a phased ceasefire and release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails.
While Israeli officials have suggested that Hamas appears to want a deal and that gaps between the two sides have closed, there is still agreement on key issues including how many hostages – and which ones – should be released in the first phase and the identities of Palestinian prisoners being sought for release.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian official close to the negotiations said mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses but he said Israel had introduced conditions that Hamas rejected.
Hamas is also reportedly concerned that any deal agreed under the auspices of the Biden administration might not survive the swearing-in of Donald Trump on 20 January, opening the way for renewed Israeli assaults in Gaza after the first phase is completed.
Two Arab media organisations, however, suggested on Wednesday that Hamas believed most of the points of contention had been overcome.
Several rounds of talks of negotiations have failed to replicate an agreement reached in late November 2023, in which 105 hostages were released in a weeklong truce.
Israel believes that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October 2023 remain in the Gaza Strip, including the bodies of at least 34 captives.
