Israel's army chief said Wednesday during a visit to an Israeli-occupied security zone in southern Syria that the military would not allow threats to "establish themselves" on the border.
"We are monitoring the changes on the Syrian front. We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves on our borders, and we will know how to use our operational capabilities precisely where and when needed," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir told troops.
Israeli forces have been stationed in a security zone in southern Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, occupying what was previously a buffer zone patrolled by the United Nations that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan since 1974.
The top general said the army cannot afford to let down its guard on any of Israel's active war fronts, including Syria.
"We are still in a multi-front war, alert and operating in all arenas -- escalation can develop in any one of them, and we must remain in constant readiness."
Zamir's visit came one day after Israel bombed the Abu al-Duhur air base in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, accusing Damascus of violating an agreement by accepting Turkish troops on it.
"Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel's security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings," said a statement by the Office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which stopped short of acknowledging Israeli responsibility.
Türkiye, which has had tense relations with Israel in recent years, rejected the allegations, while the US ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack condemned the strikes, saying they constituted an "unnecessary escalation."
Syria's foreign ministry condemned "in the strongest terms the Israeli airstrikes" targeting the base, calling them "an unjustified act of aggression" and urging action by the UN Security Council.
The attacks come as Syria "has exercised restraint and worked to consolidate stability and avoid escalation", it added.
Despite tensions between the neighbors, Israel and Syria's new authorities have held several rounds of direct talks and have agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.
But last week Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that his country planned to keep troops in Syria.
Israel captured most of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later annexed the areas under its control, in a move not recognized by the international community except for the United States and Colombia.
