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Lebanon and Syria Since 2024: The Map Moves North

In 2023 Israel held no ground in Syria beyond the Golan Heights and none in Lebanon. By September 2026 it held the Syrian summit of Mount Hermon, the Syrian buffer zone, a declared no-go zone for the Syrian army across southern Syria, and southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, roughly a tenth of Lebanon. Its finance minister calls the Litani "the new Israeli border." Its defense minister calls the Golan and Hermon Israel's "forever." Settlers are crossing into both countries. This is Greater Israel moving from words to facts on the ground, and it happened in step with the wars on Iran. This page gives the overview; the country pages go deeper: Lebanon and Syria.

Syria: Hermon, the buffer zone, and "until Damascus"​

The words came first. In an October 2024 documentary, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: "I want a Jewish state. Bit by bit. It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus. Until Damascus" (Critical Perspectives on X, 10 October 2024, video). The same month, Channel 14's English account wrote that Israel "should focus on Syria before starting the war with Iran" on the way to "the establishment of Greater Israel" (C14 News English on X, 2 October 2024). Full account: Smotrich: "Until Damascus".

Then the land. On 8 December 2024, as the Assad government collapsed, Israeli forces crossed into the 1974 buffer zone and took the Syrian summit of Mount Hermon. On 17 December Netanyahu stood on the summit, the first sitting Israeli prime minister to enter Syrian territory, and said Israel would stay "until another arrangement can be found." Defense Minister Israel Katz called Hermon "the eyes of the State of Israel" (Times of Israel, 17 December 2024). Haaretz's editor-in-chief titled his analysis "From Mount Hermon's Peaks, Netanyahu Plots His Vision of a Greater Israel" (Haaretz, 11 December 2024). A week after Assad fell, the government "unanimously approved Netanyahu's plan to encourage settlement" on the Golan: "We will continue to hold onto it, develop it, & settle it" (Ramy Abdu on X, 15 December 2024). Full account: Mount Hermon.

Then the south. In 2025 Israel declared southern Syria off-limits to the new Syrian army, citing the Druze minority, and troops reached "15 min from Damascus" (Bilal Abdul Kareem on X, 1 September 2025). In 2026 settlers began crossing from the Golan into southern Syria "in an effort to advance a 'Greater Israel' project" (Truthout on X, 28 April 2026; Middle East Eye, 3 July 2026). Full account: The southern Syria buffer zone.

Then "forever." On 23 September 2026 Katz answered Syria's president at the UN: the Golan is "an integral, eternal part of Israel," Israel will not leave Hermon or the buffer zone, and any territory taken in a future fight "will remain ours forever" (Times of Israel liveblog; World Israel News). In December 2024 Washington had said, through Jake Sullivan and Antony Blinken, that it "will make sure that Israel's presence in Syria doesn't become permanent" (Mondoweiss, 17 December 2024).

Lebanon: the Litani line​

The war. On 2 March 2026, after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, Hezbollah opened fire and Israel's war on Lebanon resumed. Israel's public broadcaster reported plans to mobilize 450,000 reservists (Anadolu on X, 15 March 2026).

The border. On 23 March 2026 Smotrich said: "I say here definitively…in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani" (Times of Israel liveblog). The next day Katz announced the army would hold "the security zone up to the Litani," that "hundreds of thousands" of residents would not be allowed to return, and that "Where there is terror and missiles, there will be no homes and no residents" (Times of Israel, 24 March 2026). The Jerusalem Post: Katz was "spelling out for the first time Israel's intent to seize territory amounting to nearly a tenth of Lebanon" (Jerusalem Post, 24 March 2026). Haaretz's headline: "Israel to Hold Southern Lebanon, Block Residents' Return, Defense Minister Says" (Haaretz, 24 March 2026). On 5 April, 18 Knesset members pressed the government to "evacuate" the population up to the Litani. On 9 April, at a settlement inauguration, Smotrich: "In Lebanon, to the Litani, in Syria, Mount Hermon" (video).

The stay. A ceasefire began on 16 April 2026 with Israeli troops still inside Lebanon. A US-brokered framework in June left them in buffer zones up to 10 kilometers deep. Netanyahu: "Israel stays in the yellow security zone that keeps us safe. And this is a huge achievement. Huge!" (Clash Report on X, 27 June 2026). In August Israel's Foreign Ministry posted on its Arabic account a map showing "large areas of southern Lebanon incorporated into Israel," then deleted it (Middle East Monitor, 10 August 2026). By September, "more than 65 towns and villages in Lebanon are still under Israeli occupation," a photographer who had worked in the border town of Aitaroun wrote (post, 4 September 2026).

The settlers. Uri Tzafon, a movement founded in 2024 to settle southern Lebanon, calls it "simply the Northern Galilee." Its co-founder: "The idea is that most of the population flees, we move the border, and we do not let that population return" (France 24, 14 May 2026). Full accounts: The Litani line, Israeli ministers on Lebanon, Settling South Lebanon.

An old idea, reached in 2026​

The Litani did not come from nowhere. In 1919 Chaim Weizmann called it "essential to the future of the Jewish national home." In 1948 Ben-Gurion wanted it as Israel's border. In 1955, by Moshe Sharett's diary, Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan proposed that "the territory south of the Litani will be annexed to Israel." Israel's 1978 invasion was named Operation Litani. It held a southern Lebanon "security zone" from 1982 to 2000 (Zachary Foster on X, 3 March 2026; L'Orient Today, 27 November 2023). In 2026 it went back, and its ministers now call the river a border.

Israeli voices who say what it is​

  • Col. (res.) Udi Evental, former Israeli military planner: "forward defense" is "a euphemism for territorial occupation," and "a security-ideological coalition has now emerged in Israel, using a defensive-preventive narrative to advance a messianic agenda of 'Greater Israel'" (Udi Evental on X, 25 April 2026).
  • Zvi Barel, Haaretz: "The vision of the complete Land of Israel is no longer limited to the West Bank and the sacred lands of the Gaza Strip. If one believes Bezalel Smotrich, the state's borders will also stretch into Lebanese territory" (Hebrew, shared on X, 2 August 2025, translation for this page).
  • Even the defenders: a JNS column titled "The Greater Israel hoax is the most dangerous lie yet" still insists Israel must keep "buffer zones in the north up to the Litani River and the strategic depth of the Golan Heights" (JNS, 1 April 2026).

How the region reads it​

  • Lebanon's president, Joseph Aoun: Lebanon "will not yield even an inch of land to Israel" (X news summary, 1 July 2026).
  • Syria's president, Ahmed al-Sharaa: "There are expansionist intentions of the Israeli occupation in Syria" (Levant24 on X, 4 March 2025); "We reject the permanent Israeli attempts to impose a fait accompli in Syria" (Charles Lister on X, 23 September 2026).
  • Jordan's King Abdullah at the UN: "No one in this assembly should think that ambitions will stop at Palestine... today's Syria is the warning that the international community chooses not to see" (post, 23 September 2026).
  • Turkey's Erdoğan: "Turkiye's security begins not only in Hatay, but also in Aleppo, Damascus, and Beirut... We are well aware of the ultimate goal of the 'Greater Israel' illusion" (The Cradle on X, 10 June 2026).
  • Hezbollah's Naim Qassem: "Israel is present in Lebanon because it seeks to swallow it up and occupy it as part of its Greater Israel project" (Zeinab Saffar on X, 26 June 2026).

What this means for an American family​

The United States arms Israel, brokered the arrangement that left Israeli troops in Lebanon, and is the only country that recognizes Israel's annexation of the Golan. New permanent lines on the Litani and on Hermon are new permanent war fronts, and American forces in the region are within reach of every one of them. A fair question for any member of Congress: does the United States accept these lines as Israel's new borders?

How strong is the evidence?​

ClaimRatingPage
Israel holds Mount Hermon and the Syrian buffer zone and says it will stay "forever"CONFIRMEDMount Hermon
Israel's finance minister says Jerusalem is destined "to expand to Damascus"CONFIRMEDSmotrich: "Until Damascus"
Israel holds southern Lebanon to the Litani and bars residents' returnCONFIRMEDLebanon
Senior ministers call the Litani Israel's new borderCONFIRMEDIsraeli ministers on Lebanon
Settler movements are moving to settle southern Lebanon and southern SyriaSTRONGSettling South Lebanon
These moves carry out a long-held plan for Greater Israel's northern borderSTRONGThe Litani line

Status: Bezalel Smotrich, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Katz, Aluf Benn, Udi Evental, Zvi Barel, Joseph Aoun, Ahmed al-Sharaa, King Abdullah II, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Naim Qassem, Jake Sullivan, and Antony Blinken are alive. Chaim Weizmann (1952), David Ben-Gurion (1973), Moshe Sharett (1965), and Moshe Dayan (1981) are deceased. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Go deeper​

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t23__v265.md through twitter/t23__v276.md, twitter/t24__v277.md through twitter/t24__v288.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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