Defense Minister Israel Katz visited the strategic crown of Mount Hermon inside Syrian territory on Tuesday, asserting that the IDF will not withdraw from the Hermon summit or the designated security zone as long as threats against the State of Israel persist. During the high-level operational tour, Katz revealed that Israel has actively thwarted attempts by Turkey to establish military entrenchment in Syria and will continue to aggressively defend its core security interests. “We will not budge from Mount Hermon or the security zone as long as jihadi threats against the State of Israel remain,” the Defense Minister declared. “The message to the President of Syria is unmistakable: When you wake up in your Damascus palace, look up at Mount Hermon, and see the IDF, you know that we are here to defend our communities and secure our border.”
2+The operational tour was attended by IDF Deputy Chief of the General Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, Northern Command Chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, Head of the IDF Syria Directorate Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, 210th Division Commander Brig. Gen. Yair Peli, the Defense Minister’s Military Secretary Brig. Gen. Hisham Ibrahim, and other senior commanding officers. Katz received an intelligence and situational briefing from field commanders and praised the steadfast vigilance of both regular and reserve forces operating across the sector.
‘Overlooking Damascus From Above’
“We are standing here at the crown of Mount Hermon, where the Syrian Hermon outpost once stood. Today, IDF forces are deployed here, across the Hermon range, throughout the Golan Heights, and across the entire security zone,” Katz said. He emphasized that the vantage point provides troops with direct line-of-sight over Damascus, situated just 35 kilometers away, as well as the Bekaa Valley and Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
2+The Defense Minister stressed that maintaining a fortified military presence in the buffer zone is vital to shielding Golan Heights and Galilee communities from jihadi elements operating across Syria. “The IDF being stationed here, staying here, and refusing to budge ensures that cross-border horrors will never recur—that is the central lesson of October 7,” he affirmed. Katz added that IDF troops operate daily to preempt emerging terror plots and counter hostile reorganizations inside Syria. “As long as threats exist, the IDF will remain deployed here to guarantee our security. That is what we have done, and that is what we will continue to do.”
Katz: ‘We Acted Against Turkish Attempts to Entrench in Syria’
Katz also revealed that Israel had actively struck back against Turkish efforts to establish an operational foothold inside Syrian territory in ways that threatened core Israeli security interests. “We acted decisively against a Turkish effort to entrench inside Syria at the expense of Israel’s national security,” Katz stated. “We made our boundaries crystal clear, and we will stand by them in the future.”
2+Reflecting on broader Israeli military operations across Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime, Katz concluded: “We took decisive action to ensure Syria ceases to pose a threat to the State of Israel. We obliterated the entirety of the Assad military’s strategic infrastructure in a matter of days. We continue to dismantle threats here to secure our sovereignty—and that is exactly how we will proceed.”