JERUSALEM / ANKARA
The Israeli army said Sunday that it had withdrawn its paratrooper brigade from inside Syria to prepare for expanding its ground onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
“After five months of operational activity in the Golan Heights and inside Syrian territory, the paratrooper brigade has completed its mission on the northern border,” a military statement said.
The army claimed that during the deployment, the brigade conducted “dozens of raids on Syrian sites, seizing and destroying hundreds of weapons.”
The Israeli army said the brigade will now join the 98th Division, an elite force comprising paratroopers and commandos under the Israeli Central Command, in preparation for intensified attacks in Gaza.
The army did not provide further details on the operations conducted inside Syria. However, Israel has repeatedly carried out cross-border strikes under the pretext of targeting hostile elements, often exploiting minority dynamics, particularly among the Druze community in southern Syria, to justify its assaults.
Syria’s new leadership under Ahmed al-Sharaa has not posed any direct threat to Israel and has reaffirmed that all religious and ethnic groups in the country are entitled to equal rights, dismissing Israeli narratives justifying military actions.
The Israeli army said that its reserve forces will continue operating along the Syrian front, taking over from the paratrooper brigade.
More than 52,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.