BICOM

Israel’s Chief of Staff Benny Gantz visited Israel’s northern border with Syria yesterday, after three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights over the weekend.

Israel captured the strategic Golan Heights during the 1967 Six Day War, later annexing the territory. The demilitarised zone was created in the aftermath of Syria’s failed attempt to re-take the area in 1973. Saturday’s incident, where three Syrian tanks briefly crossed into the demilitarised zone, was the first instance of its kind in forty years. Although the incursion is presumed to have taken place as part of the nineteen-month old internal Syrian conflict between government and opposition forces, Israel nonetheless lodged a complaint with the UN over the incident.

Visiting the Syrian border yesterday, Gantz observed the fighting between the Syrian regime and opposition troops. He warned a group of IDF officers to remain on alert, as the fighting “is a Syrian issue, but it can become ours.” Saturday’s tank incursion was not the first time that internal fighting in Syria has threatened to spill over into Israeli territory. In late September, a rocket fired from Syria landed in the Golan Heights, a day after Syrian mortar shells landed on Israeli agricultural land.

In related news, a Syrian opposition conference began yesterday in Qatar. The main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council (SNC) appeared to balk at a suggestion made last week by the United States that the opposition representative body should broaden its reach and more prominently feature those directly involved in the fighting against President Assad’s regime in Syria. The SNC is set to mull the plan to re-structure the body at the conference over the coming days.