Report: Israel Trying to Prevent a Massacre of Syrians on Golan Heights Border
Israeli officials said to ask Russia to ensure Assad forces don't harm civilians as they complete takeover of area from rebel groups
Jul 31, 2018, 4:33PM
Lior Sharon
Syrians, displaced by fighting in the country's southwest, approach the border fence between Syria and Israel the Syrian village of Bariqu in the southern province of Quneitra, on July 17, 2018. Photo: AFP /JALAA MAREY
Israel has reportedly asked Russia to ensure that Syrian government forces do not harm or massacre civilians in the south of the war-torn country as they complete their takeover of the area bordering Israel’s Golan Heights from rebel groups.
Israeli officials passed on the message to the Kremlin via diplomatic channels, Hadashot TV news reported Monday night, as the Syrian government regained control of the frontier for the first time in seven years, after Islamic State-linked militants gave up their last pocket of territory in the area.
Israel has been carrying out operations to that effect, the report said, without giving any specifics.
In recent years Israel has been engaged in a massive multi-faceted humanitarian relief operation to keep thousands of Syrians along the border from starving or falling ill due to the lack of food and basic medical care.
This image made from video released by the Israeli Defense Forces on July 22, 2018 shows a member of the White Helmets waving to Israeli soldiers as he and his family board a bus to Jordan. Photo: Israeli Defense Forces via AP
The Jewish state has treated thousands of people in field hospitals on the border and in public hospitals, mostly in northern Israel, since 2013. Since 2016, as part of Operation Good Neighbor, more than 600 Syrian children, accompanied by their mothers, have come to Israel for treatment. Hundreds of tons of food, medical equipment and clothing have also been sent across the border to Syria.
Earlier this month, the Israeli military evacuated hundreds of Syrian “White Helmets” rescue workers and their families through Israel to Jordan at the request of Western countries.
The Israel Defense Forces said it engaged in the “out of the ordinary” gesture due to the “immediate risk” to the lives of the civilians, as Russian-backed regime forces closed in on the area. It stressed that it was not intervening in the ongoing fighting in Syria.
Monday’s Syrian government breakthrough against Islamic State militants, reported by state media and an opposition-linked war monitoring group, capped a six-week-long bloody campaign to retake the southwest corner of the country.
Rebels captured the area along the Golan Heights after a popular uprising broke out against Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2011. An IS-linked outfit known as the Khaled bin Al-Waleed Army later seized the area from the opposition fighters.
Israel took control of 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized internationally.
The region is strategically important for Syria because it also controls a key highway from the Jordanian border to the capital, Damascus.
UN peacekeeping forces first deployed along the frontier in 1974 to separate Syrian and Israeli forces.
While largely keeping to the sidelines of the Syrian civil war, Israel has said it will not allow Iran or the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah to establish a permanent military presence near the frontier. Both are allied with Assad and have provided crucial military support to his forces.
Earlier Monday, Russia’s ambassador to Israel said in an interview that his country cannot force Iranian forces to withdraw from Syria, despite Israeli calls for Iran to leave the country altogether.
Speaking with Channel 10 news, Anatoly Viktorov said the Iranians are “playing a very, very important role in our common and joint efforts to eliminate terrorists in Syria.
“The Iranian presence in Syria… is fully legitimate according to the UN principles and the UN charter,” he added.
Viktorov said Russia can talk to its “Iranian friends” about a full withdrawal from Syria, as Israel demands, but “we cannot force them.”
