Israel’s Troop Occupation Of Southern Syria To Be Permanent

“The IDF will remain at the peak of Mount Hermon and in the security zone necessary to protect the Golan and Galilee settlements from threats looming from the Syrian side as the main lesson from the events of October 7,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Tuesday.

And so with that, Israel confirmed it will “remain” in the territory it has captured in southern Syria as a permanent occupation, which will likely lead to annexation. The Israeli army had moved swiftly beyond its Golan Heights occupation in the wake of the December 8 ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It has kept expanding since then, citing new ‘threats’.

Within the last months, IDF tanks and ground units have been observed a mere dozen miles from the outskirts of Damascus, also after literally hundreds of air raids destroying former Syrian Arab Army bases, equipment, and anti-air defense units since the government overthrow.

Katz referenced alleged “threats” from the Syrian sides which has included the occasional rocket fired from unknown groups or locations.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani of the Jolani/Sharaa regime has meanwhile blasted Israel for pursuing “expansionist and partitionist” goals. Indeed some hardline Israeli ministers have even openly called for the Israeli capture and occupation of Damascus.

Israel’s long term strategy has been known since the 1980’s and the Yinon plan:

This vision was later crystallised in the infamous 1982 Yinon Plan, authored by Oded Yinon, a former Israeli foreign ministry official. The plan called for “the dissolution of Syria…into districts of ethnic and religious minorities…[as] Israel’s primary target on the Eastern front in the long run…Syria will disintegrate into several states along the lines of its ethnic and religious structure”.

The Yinon Plan argued that Israel’s security and dominance depended on the dissolution of Arab states into smaller sectarian and ethnic entities, including Druze, Alawi, Kurdish, Maronite, Coptic and others.

US strategy in the region has always appeared to move in tandem with this, even if unspoken from Israel’s most powerful backer:

The US, therefore, prefers a controlled, divided Syria – weak enough to be pliant but not totally collapsed – where it can retain influence without triggering wider regional instability. Israel, by contrast, is more willing to tolerate, or even foment, chaos if it means permanently removing Syria as a potential threat, especially having already annexed the Syrian Golan Heights.

This is currently seen in the way Israel has rushed into southern Syria under the dubious guise of protecting the Druze minority. Commentators have likened it to ‘divide and rule’ – with some Druze even calling for absorption of their communities into Israel.

Israel’s zone of incursions into south-west Syria now covers around 600 km2 of territory.

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— ETANA (@ETANA_Syria) August 27, 2025

Druze civilians were recently executed by forces affiliated with the Syrian government. “We will continue to protect the Druze in Syria as well,” Katz has stated, with no mention of the many persecuted Christians that are in the same region. Churches in Suwayda Governorate have of late suffered firebombing and attacks at the hands of government-affiliated jihadists.

This comes as the US continues to push an Abraham Accords recognition and normalization between Syria and Israel. But this has only come about post-Assad – and while Syria is at its weakest in recent history, and with no air power whatsoever to speak of. Turkey has also been vying for influence, but as a direct supporter of the new Sunni regime.