Israel and Syria have been at odds since the formation of Israel as an official state in the Arab-Israel war, in 1948. From this point the nations have engaged in serious tensions that have escalated to air strikes and invasions over territorial disputes. This article will outline areas in Syria where Israel have previously and presently occupy, explain Israel’s reasoning for it’s incursions onto Syrian land and conclude by providing some analysis based on these claims. 

Golan Heights

Golan Heights has been a serious source of contention between the two nations, as this land geographically falls under Syrian jurisdiction but two-thirds of the Golan Heights was occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. 

This area holds great geopolitical benefits and agricultural resources, as it acts as a vital water resource to both Israel and Syria. For Israel it borders the Hula Valley, located east of Golan Heights, and the Sea of Galilee, located in the Jordan Valley and west of Golan Heights. The Sea of Galilee’s upper region is Israel’s largest freshwater reservoir and supplies one quarter of the yearly amount of water consumed in Israel. For Syria, Golan Heights borders the Yarmouk River, located in south-west Syria and flows along its border with Jordan, providing water for domestic use and farming in Syria. The Golan Heights is also strategically beneficial to the country that controls it as its elevated ground allows for surveillance of Southern Syria and the city of Damascus, giving Israel constant knowledge of Syrian movement. 

For these reasons, Syria attempted to regain control of the territory in the 1973 Middle Eastern War, which resulted in Syria recovering some of Golan Heights but ultimately both countries agreed to a ceasefire line being drawn and an official UN peacekeeping force being tasked with guarding the area in 1974. Unfortunately, Israel’s forces placed more than a million landmines over the recovered Syrian area in Golan Heights, so this new territory is effectually useless. Later in 1981, Israel attempted to unilaterally annex the entire area but this move was deemed illegitimate by the UN.

Attacks on other Syrian Towns: 

There are many other areas in Syria that Israel have occupied, including Mount Hermon. This occurred mere hours after the fall of the Syrian government on December 8th 2024. Although this was initially presented as a temporary measure to protect Israel’s borders, Israel’s forces still remain occupying this area. Mount Hermon is the highest point on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, standing at a height of 2814 metres. This would provide Israel with advance warning of an incoming attack from Syria and give them adequate time to prepare. 

The town of Quneitra had also been invaded by an Israeli occupation army patrol on January 5th 2025. Locals have even stated that extensive population surveys have been conducted, but local activists worry a new demographic will be forcefully imposed and they will eventually be displaced. Especially since Syria was in a state of anarchy at this time, it was easier for Israel to occupy this area. 

As recently as February 26th 2025, Israel conducted 4 airstrikes targeting the city of Damascus, the province of Daraa and the town of Kiswah.These are areas Israel claim to hold Syrian military sites and state attacking them was necessary to force the relinquishing of weapons and the demilitarisation of southern Syria as a whole. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated this is the reason for Israel’s continued airstrike attacks on Syria.

Israel’s Claims: 

The main priority of Israel is ensuring the demilitarisation of Southern Syria. Israel has made it abundantly clear that it will continue its airstrikes over Syria, as long as it believes a ‘concerningly extremist’ Syria is attempting to weaponise itself. Just on Wednesday, Israel attacked areas in southern Syria it described as holding ‘Command centres and military bases’.

A spokesperson for Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz stated,

‘Any attempt by the Syrian regime force and the country’s terrorist organisations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria will be met with fire, we will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon’.

The foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar reiterated this message stating that,

‘A stable Syria can only be a federal Syria that includes autonomous regions and respects different ways of life’.

However, this attack conveniently occurred the same day as comments critiquing Israel’s invasion into parts of south Syria were made at Syria’snational dialogue conference. In the closing statement of the conference, Al-Sharaa strongly condemned Israel for its

‘Blatant violation of sovereignty of the Syrian state’ and called for ‘An immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel’s forces from Syria.’

Therefore while Israel is publicly citing their only agenda with these air strikes is to demilitarise southern Syria and ensure the safety of Israel’s citizens, it can be said that they have a strong interest in ensuring their incursions into Syria are silenced. Any concerns Israel had over comments made at the national dialogue conference, could have instead been addresssed through diplomacy, but it’s choice to display its hard power in retailiation is an extreme method to reassert its strong presence in Syria; signalling Israel refuses to cooperate with Syrian demands to completely withdraw from all its territories. This is supported by the fact there is very little news coverage from Israel sources on this recent attack, showing Israel does not want the rest of the international community to be aware of its violation of Syrian sovereignty.

While Israel claims its demands for a demilitarised Syria are valid and legitimate because a security threat posed by what it calls, ‘extremists residing in Syria’, it can be argued this is an attempt to disguise Israel’s ulterior motive of exploiting a vulnerable Syria so it can expand its territory into what it believes should be a federal Syria. This is somewhat similar to its previous actions of trying to unilaterally annex Golan Heights in 1981.

Israel’s original statement about the Golan Heights says their movement into the UN protected ceasefire zone was a temporary measure, and only to protect Israel’s border from intrusions. However as of December 2024, Israel’s Prime Minster Netanyahu has changed this stance and given no indication as of when Israel’s troops will fall back, saying their occupation is indefinite to prevent extremist groups entering southern Syria. This is despite the fact the entire international community, with the exception of the US, acknowledge Golan Heights as land belonging to Syria, but remains occupied by Kurdish and Israel’s forces. Israel’s Prime Minister has also said he believes the new Syrian authorities’ link to Jihadism poses danger to Israel, despite the fact Syrian President Al-Sharaa has assured the global community that Syria is not a threat to any nation and reassured Israel he is willing to uphold the 1974 disengagement agreement. Which would signal a step towards peace for the nations. 

This changing stance from Israel and disinterest from engaging with a seemingly cooperative Syria, seems to show Israel is looking to justify their expansion into rightfully Syrian territories. This is done by making public statements that frame Syria as an armed and dangerous power whose territory needs to be divided. When in actuality it is Israel whose current occupation in the Golan Heights, as well as their occupation of approximately 154 square miles of southern Syria, that is in defiance of international agreements. 

This view can be supported by the mention of Southern Lebanon, in reference to Syria, by Israel’s defence minister. As Israel invaded southern Lebanon in October 2024 stating it is using intelligence to specifically strike areas Hezbollah and known affiliates are residing to protect its citizens in the north. However a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah was struck on November 24th 2024, which stated Israel would remove all forces from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah would also withdraw forces from the north of the Litani river by January 26th 2025. Similar to its armistice deal with Syria over Golan Heights, Israel violated this agreement, conducting 330 airstrike incidents after this deal was agreed upon and still occupy five ‘Stragetic locations’ in southern Lebanon. This includes, Laboune Hill in the Tyre district, Jabal Balat in Jbeil, Jal al-Deir in Bin Jbeil, positions along the Markaba-Houla road in Marjayoun and the Hamames Hill in Marjeyoun.

Israel claim their active presence in southern Lebanon is to protect ‘All northern communities’ because Hezbollah violated the ceasefire deal by remaining in northern areas by the Litani River. Hezbollah denied this accusation and stated it had committed no direct attacks on Israel’s territory since before the ceasefire deal took effect, this led to Lebanon filing a complaint with the UN for Israel’s inability to respect the terms of their deal. The UN continue to call for Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon. 

Therefore, this displays an unwillingness from Israel to surrender a territory that geographically belongs to another sovereign nation. It can be said Israel’s actions in occupying areas of southern Syria and southern Lebanon reflect that it’s main concern is not security, this is rather deployed when the possibility of expanding its land into other nations’ territories seems possible. As Israel appears open to signing internationally recognised treaties for the sake of maintaining peace but have been seen to break these deals to continue occupying areas in other countries. These actions make its demands of a demilitarised southern Syria seem to be more about making the nation easier to invade. Furthermore its advocating for a federal Syria is a method of trying to do this by legal means– if this fails, it is within the realm of possibility that Israel may use illegal methods to obtain more areas of Syria.