The Israeli military said Sunday it killed several “armed terrorists” a day earlier in southern Syria.
“Saturday, IDF soldiers eliminated several armed terrorists in the Security Zone in southern Syria,” it said in a statement.
The Israeli army has occupied what it calls a “security zone” in southern Syria since late 2024 and said it would remain in place there “in order to remove any threat to Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers."
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier this month that it planned to keep its troops in Syria “for an unlimited period," as well as in Lebanon and Gaza.
After the December 2024 overthrow of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights.
Israel has also carried out repeated incursions into Syrian territory since then, as well as bombings, and has said it wants a demilitarized zone in the country’s south.
Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later annexed the areas under its control, in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Despite tensions between the neighbors, Israel's and Syria’s new authorities have held several rounds of direct talks and have agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism as they edge towards a security agreement.
In his warning that Israeli forces would not leave Syria, Katz also told Iran that if the Islamic republic attacked Israel in response to its campaign in Lebanon, Israel would retaliate with “full force."
A ceasefire in the Middle East war between Tehran and Washington has been strained as the foes exchange tit-for-tat attacks, harming negotiations meant to end the war despite a memorandum of understanding reached in mid-June under Pakistan’s mediation.
