Amid criticism from Northern Command officers regarding the futility of stationing hundreds of IDF troops on the Syrian side of the border on the Golan Heights, the daily routine of the soldiers is becoming clearer under the shadow of potential danger that may approach from the east. On Sunday, Ynet revealed voices from within the IDF questioning the presence of two brigades in the Syrian territories beyond the border over the past two weeks, following the fall of Bashar Assad's regime to the rebels.
The IDF is not ruling out the possibility of withdrawing from populated areas where forces have entrenched themselves over the past week, near Syrian residents, and instead consolidating in open spaces.
IDF troops stationed in southern Lebanon
IDF reservations stem from the fact that there is no visible enemy, nor any intelligence indicating one. Soldiers are primarily engaged in self-defense under very low operational tension, alongside violent friction that has begun to develop with local Syrian residents protesting the IDF's incursion into their territory. According to warnings, this could lead to a terror effect from cells approaching the area and attempting to harm the soldiers.
Two days ago, additional officers noted that, unlike the borders with the Gaza Strip or Lebanon, most of the Golan Heights is flat and easier to control through observation and firepower. Additionally, the perimeter is much larger than other borders: The tall security fence is not the actual border, and in some areas Israeli territory stretches one to two kilometers eastward, up to the barrel line marking the boundary between the two countries.
Meanwhile, the daily routine of paratroopers and armored corps soldiers in the area is becoming clearer. All of them, until recently, were engaged in intense offensive missions against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Now the soldiers are primarily defending themselves in temporary outposts or abandoned Assad army posts, but also on the outskirts of the villages themselves. They patrol between five to six locations the IDF has seized in the Syrian Golan. They attempt to cover each other through ambushes and reconnaissance missions and occasionally undertake less formal tasks.
For example, troops have repaired infrastructure they accidentally damaged for Syrian residents, such as water pumps and a local power line. In at least two cases, Syrian residents approached IDF soldiers requesting medical assistance for their ailments, and their requests were granted by an IDF paramedic.
In accordance with the political echelon's decision, the gates to Israel have not yet been opened for them, but the IDF promises that efforts to create opportunities for cooperation with at least some of the 70,000 Syrians living opposite Israel are ongoing.
Officers currently most engaged beyond the border are from the Northern Command's Population Unit, many of whom are Druze reservists. They are trying to understand the Syrians, and the Syrians are trying to understand the IDF through them.
"The officers from this unit have prevented further incidents thanks to dialogue with the local Syrians. We’ve also learned lessons from the two cases where we had to shoot the knees of key agitators during protests against us after they got too close to our forces," the military said. "We haven’t conducted weapons searches in their villages, even though not all of them have handed over their weapons. It’s doubtful we’ll be able to collect all their weapons because it’s part of their culture – to be armed for self-defense after what they’ve experienced in the past decade."
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The IDF also emphasized that not all sectors in the Golan have a wide perimeter and there are still dead zones in the region. "Our presence allows us to continue fortifying the barrier – a large and critical project for defense against an invasion of Israel," the IDF said in a statement. "There are still Assad army outposts, slightly deeper in, that we won’t reach. We’re not there for unnecessary adventures."
Another potentially dangerous point, though not for operational reasons, is the summit of the Syrian Hermon, which Israeli forces also captured this month without a fight. Despite a swift operation by the Technology and Logistics Directorate (Atal) to prepare or establish durable outposts for soldiers at altitudes of 1.49 miles and 1.74 miles, as revealed by Ynet last week, some still point to the dangers of staying there during a snowstorm or under harsher extreme conditions than those at older outposts like Israeli and Snow Observatory, located at around 1.37 miles.
The IDF is preparing for the possibility of very long days without the ability to evacuate soldiers from there if necessary, and they will have to survive on their own with emergency equipment and food now being supplied to them.