CNN reports:

Mount Hermon’s summit is a tremendous asset under Israel’s control. At 9,232 feet (2,814 meters), it is higher than any point in Syria or Israel, and second to only one peak in Lebanon.

“People sometimes say in the age of missiles, land is not important – it’s simply untrue,” Inbar said.

In an academic paper published in 2011, he wrote of the many advantages presented by Mount Hermon.

“It enables the use of electronic surveillance deep into Syrian territory, giving Israel early-warning capacity in case of an impending attack,” he wrote. Advanced technological alternatives like airborne surveillance, he argued, was simply not comparable. “In contrast to an installation on a mountain, these cannot carry heavy equipment such as big antennas, and they can be shot down by anti-air missiles.”

The peak is just over 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) from Damascus, which means that control of its Syrian foothills – also now in IDF hands – put the Syrian capital within range for artillery cannons.

The Syrian rebel leader Mohammad al-Jolani on Saturday accused Israel of crossing “the lines of engagement” with its actions in Syria, while a group of the country’s neighbors called on Israel to withdraw its forces from all Syrian territories.

After meeting in Aqaba with officials from Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, and the European Commission, Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of trying to exploit a power vacuum in Syria. Safadi warned that the country’s stability was a “pillar of the region’s security” and that if Israel did not respect Syrian sovereignty it risked “an explosion of the situation. [Continue reading…]

The Times of Israel reports:

The leader of the Syrian Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who spearheaded the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime, spoke Saturday about Israel for the first time since taking over the country.

In an interview with the Syrian TV news channel, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who is better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said that Israel has “no more excuses” to carry out airstrikes in Syria, and that recent IDF attacks on Syrian soil have crossed red lines and threaten an unjustified escalation in the region.

Earlier in the week, Israel launched a major operation to destroy the Syrian military’s strategic military capabilities, including chemical weapons sites, missiles, air defenses, air force and navy targets, in a bid to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile elements.

In a move that has drawn some international condemnation, Israel also entered a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights just hours after the rebels, led by HTS, took Damascus. Israel has said it will not become involved in the conflict in Syria and that its seizure of the buffer zone established in 1974 was a defensive move and a temporary one until it can guarantee security along the frontier.

The rebel leader called on the international community to assume its responsibility to avoid an escalation and guarantee the respecting of Syrian sovereignty. Without directly mentioning Israel, he further spoke of “diplomatic solutions” as the only way to ensure security and stability and as a preferable option to “ill-considered military adventures.” [Continue reading…]