In Syria, too, Israeli settlers repeatedly cross the border. “They’re wasting our time,” says the IDF

Some reservists from the 810th Mountain Brigade – the unit deployed by the IDF on Mount Hermon in southern Syria – say they are exasperated by Israeli settlers attempting to cross the border. “It’s absurd that we’re putting our lives at risk for them,” a soldier told Galei Tsahal, the IDF’s radio station, on Wednesday. “We’re fed up! There are students here, people with families at home, and instead of dealing with important matters, we’ve found ourselves spending hours at night on Mount Hermon searching for the settlers. They had hidden amongst trees and bushes in steep and dangerous terrain. We chased them, climbing over boulders and putting ourselves in danger on very steep slopes. We’re wasting resources, time and energy. This isn’t our mission, which is to protect the sector and the settlements.” 

Since Assad’s fall in December 2024, Israeli forces have been deployed along the Syrian border, beyond the demilitarised zone established in 1974, crossing the border and taking control of a strip of territory approximately 15 kilometres deep, along which they have set up nine military posts. The aim is to ensure the demilitarisation of the region and to prevent the formation of terrorist cells linked to Islamic extremism or Hezbollah. For the authorities in Damascus and the UN, however, this constitutes an illegal and violent operation against local residents.

The most organised group amongst the Israeli settlers who have targeted Syria is that of the so-called ‘Pioneers of Bashan’. The last time its members attempted to enter Syria was three days ago, and on that occasion too they were intercepted and turned back by the Israeli military themselves. The IDF says that many of those who are captured return shortly afterwards to make a fresh attempt to cross the border. “The police aren’t doing their job as they should, because if someone is arrested and released on the same day, and returns the next day, we haven’t achieved anything,” explains another reservist on Tsahal radio. “We’ve tried to explain this to them: you’re interfering with our work. Three years of reserve duty, and what am I doing? Getting Israeli citizens out of Syria?”

The settlers insist that the Syrian territories of Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda form part of Bashan, a biblical region of Greater Israel to be cultivated and annexed to the Jewish state. In early July, a post on X from the pioneers’ account urged the reclamation of Syria’s southern regions: “This year, the wheat harvest in the Quneitra district amounted to 2,000 tonnes. Once this land is cultivated by Jewish pioneers rather than by Sunnis who support Hamas, the harvest will be even greater. Much of the region is already under IDF control; let the pioneers get to work there.”

The push by settlers in Syria exploits the Israeli government’s deep aversion to the new authorities in Damascus. On Thursday, the Minister for the Diaspora, Amichai Chikli, stated that “Syria is Gaza on steroids, and that will be the next war, without a shadow of a doubt. There is no way to avoid it’. Military operations are continuing despite the fact that the Syrian president, Ahmed al Sharaa – under pressure from the United States – has said he is willing to negotiate directly with Israel to resolve the issue of the southern borders. Arbitrary arrests by the IDF between Quneitra and Daraa are continuing, with ground incursions numbering around thirty since the start of August alone. In the village of Abidin, well beyond the UN-recognised buffer zone, residents placed boulders along the roads two days ago to block Israeli tanks. IDF bulldozers removed them a few hours later and, in retaliation, destroyed the farmers’ olive trees, arresting some of them and releasing them shortly afterwards.