Israel Digs In Beyond Its Northern Border

Israel has built a growing network of outposts and fortifications in Syria and Lebanon, deepening concerns about a protracted occupation in parts of the two countries.

Israel says it wants to prevent another surprise attack across its borders like the October 2023 Hamas-led attack that ignited the war in Gaza. It has not said how long its forces will remain in its neighbors’ territories, where groups hostile to Israel are present.

But there are signs that Israel appears prepared to remain indefinitely, a visual analysis by The New Times has found.

The military has set up watchtowers, prefabricated housing modules, roads and communication infrastructure, according to local residents and the United Nations. An image taken in January of an area near the Syrian town of Jubata al-Khashab shows heavy equipment at work and a newly built perimeter wall.

The largest visible buildup has been in the demilitarized buffer zone in Syria, where Israeli forces have taken up positions and set up roadblocks throughout the territory. They have also deployed beyond the zone — which was created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war — inside Syria, including on a hill overlooking the village of Kodana.

“They say it’s temporary, but based on what they’re building, it seems they’re preparing to stay for a while,” said Omar Tahan, a local leader in Kodana.

Israel also says that its forces will remain in five places in southern Lebanon so they can defend Israeli communities from potential attack.

It initially pledged as a part of a cease-fire deal reached in late November to withdraw from the country. That deadline was extended, and the two countries are now holding further negotiations.

In parallel to the war in Gaza, Israel has fought along its northern border with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia group based in Lebanon. Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones at Israeli positions shortly after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault that began the war, prompting back-and-forth attacks between both sides and displacing thousands of Israeli and Lebanese residents on either side of the border.

Last summer, Israel launched a massive aerial campaign and ground invasion that killed Hezbollah’s top leadership and many of its fighters. The conflict killed around 4,000 people in Lebanon and wounded over 16,000, according to the Lebanese authorities.

An incursion into Syria

Israel says its presence in southern Syria — it has at least nine outposts there — is intended to protect communities in northern Israel. It has expressed distrust of the new government in Damascus, which is led by the Islamist rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad late last year.

In 1973, Syria — joined by Egypt — launched a surprise assault that caught Israel off guard. The following year, Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire that created the buffer zone, in which neither military was allowed to operate.

But after the fall of Mr. al-Assad, Israeli soldiers swept into the buffer zone and beyond, with Israeli warplanes carrying out hundreds of strikes against military sites across the country.

Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, says his country remains committed to the 1974 cease-fire. But Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says the cease-fire “collapsed” with the fall of Mr. al-Assad. Now he is demanding the “complete demilitarization” of much of southern Syria “from the forces of the new regime.”

Last month, Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, said the country’s forces were prepared to remain in the buffer zone, where thousands of Syrian residents live, “for an indefinite period.” They were also conducting raids deeper into southern Syria, he said.

In another sign of widening Israel control, Mr. Katz added that his government would start issuing permission to some Syrians to enter the Golan Heights for work. Israel conquered the territory from Syria in the 1967 war and later annexed it, building Israeli settlements there. Much of the world views the area as Israeli-occupied Syrian territory.

In recent weeks, Israeli trucks have been seen operating along the buffer area. A photo from early January showed construction vehicles at work near the town of Quneitra.

And satellite images captured by Planet Labs on Jan. 21 show a recently built outpost and a 75-acre bulldozed area near Jubata al-Khashab.

Israeli forces have deployed in abandoned outposts, constructing fortifications and concrete watchtowers, including a hilltop outpost overlooking the nearby towns of Hader in Syria and Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.

Elsewhere, construction vehicles are building access roads for the military outposts and digging a defensive line along the Alpha Line, which separates the Golan Heights from the buffer zone. The Israeli military says its engineers have been reinforcing the barrier along the border as part of its security effort.

Staying put in Lebanon

In Lebanon, Israeli forces have constructed outposts in five locations, despite the initial agreement to leave in January.

Israel has long feared a surprise attack by Hezbollah from its strongholds in southern Lebanon. As part of the cease-fire, the Lebanese army was supposed to take control in the area, which it has begun to do. But Israel is still bombarding southern Lebanon on a near-daily basis, accusing Hezbollah of violating the truce.

More than 90,000 people in Lebanon remain displaced, particularly from devastated villages along the border, where many homes were destroyed.

Satellite images and videos show Israel building military installations on the Lebanese side of the border between the two countries. The Times was able to pinpoint the locations of the five outposts.

At one site, just outside the eastern Lebanese town of Khiam, satellite images show a path leading to a rectangular structure bearing the characteristics of a military outpost that was built this year. Cars and trucks are parked inside the walled area.

Photos also show an Israeli flag planted at this site. Trees dotted around the hill nearby had been cleared in recent weeks too.

Another outpost has been built between the towns of Markaba and Houla. Satellite images from March show a new, wide path leading up to a rectangular outpost with cars parked inside. The area nearby was cleared of debris.

The U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, which monitors the conflict along the border between Lebanon and Israel, has two outposts within 400 yards of the new Israeli site. Videos reviewed by The Times show Israeli forces operating nearby.

In another location on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, near the town of Aitaroun, satellite imagery shows the beginnings of a similar structure — walled and rectangular, with cars inside — on a mountain top. Near the town of Marwahin, satellite imagery shows the beginnings of similar structures being built around a hilltop, Jebel Blat, overlooking the Israeli settlement of Zar’it.

Satellite imagery and photos also confirm that new concrete blocks and barbed wire have been placed around this part of the border wall.

Footage published by a reporter working for al-Manar, a Hezbollah-owned TV channel, and verified by The Times, shows Israeli forces in this area after the withdrawal deadline. One video shows a soldier raising an Israeli flag.