The new construction, visible in satellite imagery, suggests an extended presence. Israel says its forces will stay as long as needed to protect its citizens.
JUBATA AL-KHASHAB, Syria — As the Israeli military swept into a string of Syrian villages nearly two months ago, the soldiers assured locals that the presence would be temporary — the aim limited to seizing weapons and securing the area after the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
But the earthmoving vehicles that followed suggest a more permanent presence.
“They are building military bases. How is that temporary?” asked Mohammed Muraiwid, the mayor of Jubata al-Khashab, who has watched Israel troops construct a new military outpost on the edge of his village.
Satellite imagery examined by The Washington Post shows more than half a dozen structures and vehicles in the walled Israeli base, with nearly identical construction five miles to the south. Both are linked by new dirt roads to territory in the Golan Heights that Israel captured in its 1967 war with its Arab neighbors. An area of cleared land, which experts say appears to be the beginnings of a third base, is visible another few miles south.
Hours after Assad’s grip on his country crumbled in December, Israeli tanks and troops broke through the “Alpha line” that has marked the ceasefire boundary over the past half-century and moved into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone inside Syrian territory, and in some cases beyond.
Israeli troops now come and go in the 90-square-mile buffer zone, which is supposed to be demilitarized, according to the 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria. Israel has said it considers that deal void following the Assad regime’s collapse. At its widest, the buffer zone is about six miles across, but at certain points Israeli troops have advanced several miles beyond it, local officials said.
In an interview with The Post on Sunday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra described the Israeli advance as a “violation against the Syrian people.”
JUBATA AL-KHASHAB, Syria — As the Israeli military swept into a string of Syrian villages nearly two months ago, the soldiers assured locals that the presence would be temporary — the aim limited to seizing weapons and securing the area after the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
But the earthmoving vehicles that followed suggest a more permanent presence.
“They are building military bases. How is that temporary?” asked Mohammed Muraiwid, the mayor of Jubata al-Khashab, who has watched Israel troops construct a new military outpost on the edge of his village.
Satellite imagery examined by The Washington Post shows more than half a dozen structures and vehicles in the walled Israeli base, with nearly identical construction five miles to the south. Both are linked by new dirt roads to territory in the Golan Heights that Israel captured in its 1967 war with its Arab neighbors. An area of cleared land, which experts say appears to be the beginnings of a third base, is visible another few miles south.
Hours after Assad’s grip on his country crumbled in December, Israeli tanks and troops broke through the “Alpha line” that has marked the ceasefire boundary over the past half-century and moved into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone inside Syrian territory, and in some cases beyond.
Israeli troops now come and go in the 90-square-mile buffer zone, which is supposed to be demilitarized, according to the 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria. Israel has said it considers that deal void following the Assad regime’s collapse. At its widest, the buffer zone is about six miles across, but at certain points Israeli troops have advanced several miles beyond it, local officials said.
In an interview with The Post on Sunday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra described the Israeli advance as a “violation against the Syrian people.”
