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Netanyahu on Mount Hermon, Inside Syria (December 2024)

Israel's seizure of the Syrian buffer zone and Mount Hermon, and the Lebanon security zone, in Israeli officials' own words.

Netanyahu Visits Strategic Peak Inside Seized Syria Buffer Zone | WSJ News · WSJ News · uploaded 2024-12-18 · 1:02
Original: youtube.com/watch?v=boN3wrngx5U · IPFS QmZv65NPUBxSEfXB6qHSjvPzrghaeeyChh2Qcs3D9sbwmG

What this video is evidence for

When the Assad government in Syria collapsed in December 2024, Israel moved troops past the 1974 disengagement line into the demilitarized buffer zone on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. It took the Syrian summit of Mount Hermon, the highest point in the area, which overlooks Damascus, about 35 miles away.

On December 17, 2024, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz stood on that peak inside Syrian territory (Wall Street Journal video). Israeli officials said the army would stay there until other arrangements ensure Israel's security; Katz later said Israeli forces would remain in the buffer zone and on Mount Hermon indefinitely. Israel also kept troops at five hilltop positions inside southern Lebanon after the November 2024 ceasefire.

This is the Greater Israel pattern on the ground: territory taken in war is declared a security zone, and then kept. Mount Hermon points toward Damascus, the city Finance Minister Smotrich has said Jerusalem's future will "extend to."

Where this fits: see Greater Israel for the full explanation and sources.

Transcript

This one-minute clip is mostly in Hebrew with no narration, so there is no usable English transcript.

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Last Updated: 2026-09-27