Golan Heights - Page 3

Israel claimed Syria’s long-running civil war had effectively come to an end Thursday and predicted the Golan Heights frontier between the two countries would be much quieter over the coming months.

BEIRUT — The Syrian government regained control of the frontier with the Golan Heights for the first time in seven years on Monday, after Islamic State-linked militants gave up their last pocket of territory in the area.

TEL AVIV – The IDF on Wednesday identified Captain Or Na’aman as commanding the Patriot missile which downed a Syrian fighter jet the day before and said she was also the soldier responsible for intercepting a Syrian drone that infiltrated Israeli airspace earlier this month. 

The Iranian regime wants access to water — and fast. That is a big reason the Golan is suddenly of interest.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Tuesday that Israel tried to contact the pilot of a Syrian jet before shooting down his plane after it entered Israeli airspace.

AMMAN (AFP) – Israel has evacuated 800 White Helmets rescuers and their family members threatened by advancing Syrian regime forces to Jordan for resettlement in Britain, Canada and Germany, the kingdom said Sunday.

WASHINGTON — US officials say the United States is finalizing plans to evacuate several hundred Syrian civil defense workers and their families from southwest Syria as Russian-backed government forces close in on the area.

Incoming rocket sirens blared across the Israeli Golan Heights in the predawn hours of Wednesday morning, sending residents of the area scrambling to bomb shelters in what was later determined to have been a false alarm, the army said.

The potential US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights was the focus of a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Forces loyal to the Russian- and Iranian-backed regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad launched nearly 1,270 airstrikes on rebel-held territory near Israel’s Golan Heights on Sunday alone, marking the latest move in an offensive to clear insurgents out of southern Syria, according to a monitor group.

The IDF on Tuesday transfered aid and care packages donated by Israeli residents of the Golan Heights to Syrians displaced by fighting on the other side of border, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced Wednesday.

DAMASCUS – Israel launched air strikes against three military posts in Syria Wednesday, its army said, after intercepting what it described as the incursion of an unarmed drone into its territory.

Syrian military air defences struck an Israeli warplane and shot down Israeli missiles targeting the T4 air base in Homs province in response to an act of “aggression” on Sunday night, Syrian state media said.

Russian forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad killed the son of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the chief of the crumbling Islamic State, while he was hiding in a cave in Syria, Iraqi intelligence agents claimed Thursday.

Syria’s regime and its ally Russia resumed air strikes on the south of the country on Wednesday after rebels said talks over a government takeover had “failed.”

On Monday elements of the Iranian-backed Liwa Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas and the Syrian regime’s Republican Guard were reported to be leading the Syrian regime’s offensive near the Golan, attempting to cut the Syrian rebels territory in half.

Following the historic recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Trump administration should strongly consider continuing the trend of “recognizing reality” and affirm Israeli sovereignty over the strategic Golan Heights, posited Breitbart Jerusalem chief Aaron Klein.

The Israeli military sent additional tanks and artillery cannons to the Syrian border on Sunday in light of a renewed offensive by dictator Bashar Assad and the Russian military against the remaining rebel holdouts in the country’s southwest, the army said.

TEL AVIV – Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing a major offensive in the country’s south have pitched tents on the border with Israel over recent days, with the IDF  responding by sending several tons of medical supplies and food over the border and even bringing in six wounded refugees – including four children – into Israeli territory to receive treatment in a local hospital. 

JERUSALEM –  Civilians fleeing Syria’s war will not be allowed to enter Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday adding however that his government will continue providing them with humanitarian aid.

At least eight battered rebel-held towns in southern Syria returned to regime control under Russian-brokered deals on Saturday as air strikes killed at least 15 civilians, a monitor said.

BEIRUT — A barrage of airstrikes hit rebel-held areas in southwestern Syria on Thursday, killing at least 17 civilians hiding in an underground shelter as government forces pressed their offensive to reclaim a region that was until recently part of a U.S.-backed and negotiated truce.

WASHINGTON — Visiting the US capital on Monday, Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid met with high-level American lawmakers, urging the United States to recognize Israeli sovereignty over in Golan Heights.

Forces loyal to the regime of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad took control of an abandoned UN post in the no-man’s land between the Israeli and Syrian areas of the Golan Heights, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported on Sunday.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday said Iran’s presence in Syria and its relations with Damascus are not negotiable and repeated the claim that Iran has no fixed bases in Syria.

The Syrian military recently deployed additional air defenses near the border with Israel amid heightened tensions over Iran’s presence in Syria, a commander in the pro-regime coalition told the Reuters news agency Tuesday.

The military kicked off a surprise exercise in the Golan Heights on Sunday, calling up reservists amid ongoing tensions over Iran’s presence in nearby Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday denied the presence in his country of any Iranian troops.

TEL AVIV – The U.S. may formally recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said Wednesday. 

Israeli jets have continued to strike targets in Syria following the recent Iranian missile barrage against IDF posts in the Golan Heights, a senior Israel Air Force officer said on Tuesday.

A leading Iranian cleric said Friday that Tel Aviv and Haifa will be destroyed if Israel behaves “foolishly,” while also vowing Iran will ramp up missile development despite Western criticism. He spoke as thousands of Iranians marched in anti-Israel and anti-US protests nationwide.

A top official from the Arab Gulf country of Bahrain is defending what he says is Israel’s “right” to defend itself after Israel launched overnight strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement Thursday morning condemning Iranian missile attacks on Israel and “strongly” supporting “Israel’s right to act in self-defense.”

TEL AVIV — The ongoing proxy war that Iran has been waging on Israel for years exploded into open, direct confrontation last night when Iranian forces reportedly fired a volley of about 20 rockets aimed at IDF positions in the Golan Heights.

TEL AVIV — Iranian forces operating from Syria fired about 20 rockets at Israeli army positions in the Golan Heights, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday night.

The United States embassy in Israel on Tuesday prohibited American government employees from traveling to the Golan Heights without prior approval, amid heightened fears of an Iranian attack from neighboring Syria.