Israeli construction along buffer zone with Syria violates ceasefire, UN says

The threat of a surprise invasion by Israel’s neighbours has loomed larger here since the 7 October Hamas attacks.

“Will [the trenches] stop what happened on 7 October? Yes,” said Bernard Lee. “Could you get a pick-up truck over it? No.”

But the defences being built along this frontier don’t address the more immediate threat from drones and missiles regularly launched by Iranian militia groups in Syria and Iraq – and frequently shot down by Israeli forces.

Nor do they address Israel’s concerns about Syria being an “oxygen line” for Iran to smuggle weapons to its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.

Mr Lee said commercial smugglers already used the AoS to smuggle cigarettes and electronics between Syria and Lebanon. And that a new patrol road, built by the UN, is assisting them.

“They come over the mountain, enter the area of separation with a trail of pack horses, eight at a time, with two armed guys,” he said. “They unload the pack horses and a pick-up truck meets them at our road: we’ve motorized the smuggling business.”

Asked whether the same route could be used to take weapons from Syria into Lebanon, he replied: “That is what the IDF are concerned about.”

Israel has also pointed to what it says are “daily” violations along the demilitarized frontier by Syria.

In May, Israel’s ambassador to the UN wrote to the secretary-general to complain about Syrian violations, including “armed presence in the area of separation” which “only heighten tensions in our already volatile region”.

Iran-backed militia in the area are a concern for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, too, after years of civil war.

It has appeared unwilling to be drawn in to the Israel-Hezbollah war, despite frequent Israeli strikes inside Syria targeting Hezbollah and Iranian positions and weapons shipments.

“The situation is frightening,” said Farhat, a Syrian hotel owner in the occupied Golan Heights. “Our eyes are looking more to the sky than to the plants. There’s fear here.”

Farhat’s eco-lodge, with its yurt accommodation surrounded by orchards, looks out onto rows of fresh trenches along the buffer zone.

“It gives us a sense of security,” he said. “We can sleep in peace, because there’s someone taking care of the border and not letting terrorists cross towards us.”

Israel is already fighting Iranian allies - Hamas and Hezbollah - on two of its borders. But more than a year into this regional conflict, friction is also being felt along its quietest frontier.

Additional reporting by Charlotte Scarr and Ed Habershon

Verification work by Richard Irvine-Brown and Benedict Garman