Netanyahu tours Israeli-seized buffer zone in Syria with senior army officials

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted a field visit to the Israeli-seized buffer zone in Syria on Wednesday, according to local media, Anadolu reports.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Defense Minister Israel Katz, Army Chief Eyal Zamir, and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accompanied Netanyahu.

The visit came hours after Netanyahu’s planned trial session on corruption charges on Wednesday was cancelled upon his request due to “a security matter.”

Syria denounced on Wednesday the field tour by Netanyahu to the buffer zone in the country’s south.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the “illegitimate visit” by Netanyahu and Israeli occupation officials as “a grave violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“This visit represents a new attempt to impose a fait accompli that contradicts relevant UN Security Council resolutions and falls within the occupation’s policies aimed at entrenching its aggression and continuing its violations of Syrian territory,” the ministry added.

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria.

Separately, the Israeli army said in a joint statement with Shin Bet and police that a number of Israelis and Syrians were detained on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to smuggle weapons via the Syrian border to “a criminal network inside Israel.”

Five regular and reserve Israeli soldiers were among the detainees, who carried various weapons from Syria to a smuggling network in northern Israel on several occasions that they crossed the border, the statement said.

It added that Israeli forces found dozens of weapons in a similar operation last month and arrested three Syrians on suspicion of involvement in arms smuggling in southern Syria.

Israeli incursions in southern Syria have recently intensified, with locals complaining of advances into their farmland, as well as the destruction of hundreds of acres of forests, arrests of residents, and the establishment of military checkpoints.

The Israeli army has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes on Syria and more than 400 cross-border raids into the southern provinces since December 2024, according to government data.