Overview
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the occupied Syrian side of Mount Hermon on Sept. 9 with Defense Minister Israel Katz and senior IDF commanders, and he publicly declared Israel controls the sector from the Hermon summit toward the Yarmouk River and the Mediterranean.
- Defense Minister Katz reinforced the message in video statements saying Israeli forces intend to remain on Mount Hermon and will not withdraw from the positions established there.
- Kuwait, Syria and Jordan issued formal condemnations that called the entry an illegal violation of Syrian sovereignty and urged the United Nations to intervene.
- A widely circulated video showed Netanyahu wearing a bulletproof vest and pointing toward Damascus and Lebanon, a highly visible gesture that analysts and officials said also serves as political messaging ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 Knesset election.
- The visit builds on a longer pattern of Israeli control of high ground in the Golan and the security zone seized after the Assad regime’s collapse in December 2024, a posture that analysts warn could deepen regional tensions and reshape operations against Iran-linked proxies on Israel’s northern border.