Israeli border police admit for 1st time operating inside Syrian territories

JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL

Israel’s Border Police acknowledged for the first time in the unit’s history Wednesday that its forces are operating inside Syrian territories, claiming it is part of an “operational mission” tied to recent regional developments.

Israeli police said forces “have been operating in recent days inside Syrian territory as part of an operational mission in response to developing events in the region,” without providing details.

The force noted that “this is the first time Border Police have conducted operations inside Syria.”

Police added that the mission was part of a broader series of security deployments involving border police, including recent operations in Lebanon and ongoing combat in the Gaza Strip, where a member of the “Mista‘arvim Unit” was killed. The Mista'arvim are Israeli undercover agents posing as Arabs to obtain intelligence.

The announcement comes amid a volatile security situation in southern Syria, particularly in Druze-majority areas, where internal “lawless” clashes have broken out between government forces and armed groups.

Israel has used the unrest to justify airstrikes under the pretext of “protecting Druze communities.”

Druze leaders in Syria, however, issued a statement earlier this month reaffirming their commitment to a unified Syria and rejecting any form of division or separatism.

Despite the subsequent restoration of calm and the signing of a security agreement to defuse tensions, Israel intensified its violations of Syrian sovereignty. Within hours of the Druze statement, Israeli jets reportedly bombed areas near the presidential palace in Damascus and launched dozens of airstrikes across the country.

Since 1967, Israel has occupied most of the Syrian Golan Heights. Following the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, Israel expanded its control, seizing the Syrian buffer zone and declaring a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria defunct.

Israel also took control of Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh), a strategic peak that lies near the Syrian-Lebanese border and overlooks Israeli territory.

Although Syria’s new leadership under President Ahmad al-Sharaa has not issued threats against Israel, Tel Aviv has been conducting near-daily airstrikes on Syrian territory for months.

A new transitional administration was formed in Syria in January following the fall of the Assad regime.

Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia in December, ending the Baath Party’s decades-long grip on power that began in 1963.