Israel conquered Syria's highest mountain directly to Assad's fall

Israel conquered Syria's highest mountain directly to Assad's fall

Israel has not lost time to bomb all Syrian military resources that want to protect it from the rebels. A total of almost 500 destinations were attacked, the navy was destroyed and, according to the information, 90 % of the well-known soil-air rockets were put out of action.

Security and strategic importance of the Hermon summit

The occupation of the highest point of Syria, the Hermon summit, is particularly sensitive. This conquest could be one of the most permanent profits, although Israeli officials have emphasized that the occupation is temporarily.

"This is the highest place in the region, with a view to Lebanon, Syria and Israel," said Efraim Inbar, director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). "He is extremely important. There is no substitute for mountains."

military control over the Hermon

The Hermon summit is located in Syria, in a buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces for over fifty years until Israeli troops took control last weekend. Up to this point the summit was demilitarized and was monitored by UN peacekeepers-its highest permanent site in the world.

The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz gave the command on Friday to prepare the armed forces for the hard conditions of the winter use. "Due to the developments in Syria, it is of enormous security relevance to secure our control over the summit of the Hermon," he said in an explanation.

geopolitical effects

The Israeli armed forces (IDF) continued to penetrate the area around the summit and have penetrated to Beqaasem, about 25 kilometers from the Syrian capital, reported the Syrian activist group Voice of the Capital. CNN could not confirm this information independently. A spokesman for the Israeli military denied this week that the troops moved "towards" Damascus.

Israel conquered the Golan heights, a strategic plateau in Southwest Syria, which borders on the Hermon, during the war of 1967 and has occupied it since then. Syria tried in 1973 to recapture the area, but failed, and Israel annexed the heights in 1981. This line-up is illegal according to international law, but the United States recognized the right to Golanhöhen during the Trump Administration of Israel.

The role of the Hermon summit

Israel has had some of the lower slopes of the Hermon for decades and even operates a ski area , but the summit itself has so far been officially Syrian area.

"We do not intend to interfere in the internal affairs of Syria," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video after Israel bombed hundreds of Syrian goals and taken the demilitarized buffer zone. "But we intend to do everything necessary to ensure our security."

military surveillance options

The summit of the Hermon is an enormous assets under Israeli control. At 2,814 meters, it is higher than every point in Syria or Israel and only follows one summit in Lebanon. "Sometimes people say that in the age of rockets, land is not important - that is just wrong," noted Inbar.

In an academic paper that was published in 2011, he wrote about the many advantages that HERMON offers: "It enables the use of electronic monitoring deep in the Syrian area, which has an early warning capacity in the event of an impending attack." Advanced technical alternatives such as air-supported surveillance, he argued, are simply not comparable: "In contrast to installation on a mountain, these cannot wear heavy devices such as large antennas and can be shot down by floor air rockets."

The geopolitical situation and forecasts

The summit is only a little over 35 kilometers from Damascus, which means that control over the Syrian foothills-now also in IDF hands-brings the Syrian capital within the reach of artillery shooters.

The Israeli Prime Minister has stated that his "hand stretched out" to work with the new government in Syria. But in the world after October 7th, he and other decision -makers made it clear to national security that they do not want to take any risks.

"First and foremost, it is a comfort for us," said the retired Brigadier general Israel Ziv about Israel's operations in Syria. "We learned what happens in other countries when a terrorist organization has military equipment."

Netanyahu also emphasized that the line -up is temporary. "Israel will not allow jihadists to fill this gap and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan heights with attacks in the style of October 7," he said. His criteria for a withdrawal are that a Syrian troop "which adheres to the 1974 Agreement can be set up and the security at our border is guaranteed."

It remains unclear when this could be achieved.

whether the military withdraws is a political decision, ”said Inbar.“ The military would like to stay there. ”

Mike Schwartz and Tim Lister contributed to this report.