Israel has divided southern Syria to exercise control over it: Report

The Israeli regime’s forces have reportedly divided southern Syria into three areas as a means of trying to keep those areas, from the Arab country’s border to the capital Damascus, under control across multiple levels.

The regime’s Channel 12 aired the report on Wednesday, saying Tel Aviv was operating “numerous cells” across the country, with "weapons present in nearly every home" to implement the plot.

According to the report, around 40,000 Syrian civilians were currently in the areas where the regime was trying to exercise control.

Tel Aviv significantly ramped up its deadly attacks against Syria late last year under the pretext of preventing spillover of violence from the country into the occupied Palestinian territories.

The aggression featured Israeli forces’ even moving into a 400-square-kilometer buffer zone in Syria’s Tel Aviv-occupied Golan Heights. The buffer zone is expected to be operated by the United Nations forces.

The seized areas in Golan Heights include strategic locations such as Mount Hermon, which is situated approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Damascus.

Amid the Israeli escalation, foreign-backed militants of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group took over the country before resorting to extreme deadly violence against the Alawite religious minority on Syria’s western coastline.

Channel 12’s report, meanwhile, said the regime’s new expansionist ambitions concerning southern Syria were aimed at ensuring that the targeted areas remained demilitarized and free from, what the report called, threats to the occupying regime.

Israeli minister for military affairs Israel Katz recently said Israeli troops would remain in Syria indefinitely towards, what he called, protecting “Israeli communities” and preventing alleged transfer of weapons from the country to Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah, which is engaged in anti-Israeli struggle.

Minister: Israeli troops to stay in Syrian territory indefinitely

The Israeli minister of military affairs insists on indefinite deployment of regime forces in the occupied Golan Heights.

The regime, the report added, sees operations in Syria as a “preventive measure,” "drawing lessons" from the historic operation of October 7, 2023, during which resistance fighters infiltrated the occupied territories, encircling strategic military bases and capturing 240 Zionists.

This is while the new HTS-led regime in Syria has clearly said that it seeks no conflict with the regime, despite claiming that Tel Aviv had to withdraw from the occupied areas in the Arab country.

‘Syria will not engage in conflict with Israel’: HTS chief breaks silence on Israeli assaults

Syria’s de-facto new ruler says that Syria will not engage in a conflict with Israel.

Observers say the HTS-led regime’s assertion of refusal to fight the Israeli regime indicates that it would try not to allow the operation of resistance groups across the country that could threaten the regime and fight the militants and terrorists, who are on its payroll.

The resistance fighters aiding Syria’s former democratically-elected government in the face of foreign-backed terrorism, used to stage a successful struggle against the Takfiri terrorists, who received notable financial and arms support from Tel Aviv.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir