Watching with horror and glee, Netanyahu orders the military to seize the Syrian buffer zone

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria was a “direct result” of Israel's military campaign against Iran and its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

“This is a historic day in the history of the Middle East,” he said.

But in a sign of the potential danger Israel feels from the unknown rulers in Damascus, Netanyahu ordered the army to occupy the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.

“In cooperation with the Minister of Defense, and with the full support of the Cabinet, I ordered the IDF yesterday to take control of the protected area and the high positions around it,” he said during a visit to the Golan Heights. “We will not allow any hostile power to settle on our border.”

It is the first time that Israeli troops have been stationed in the protected area since the 1974 agreement that established a control mechanism between Israel and Syria, although in the past they entered the area for a short time. The buffer zone, a demilitarized zone inside Syria and controlled by its government, was established in 1974 and was patrolled by United Nations troops. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and occupied it in 1981.

Israeli leaders watched the events across the border in Syria with a mixture of horror and joy, as 50 years of imprisonment were ended in a matter of hours.

“We don't know much,” said Boaz Shapira, a researcher at the Alma Foundation, a think tank devoted to issues in northern Israel. “The situation we were used to in Syria in the past – 50 years with the Assad regime – has completely changed.”

Bashar al-Assad was by no means an ally, but there was an understanding that allowed countries to coexist. Although Israel occasionally provided aid to those killed in the Syrian civil war, it maintained official neutrality in the conflict. Israel's military has for years targeted supply lines to Iran and its proxy Hezbollah in Syria – notably killing Iranian military commanders at the Iranian embassy in Damascus, in April – but has avoided targeting the Assad regime itself.

The rapid capture of the rebels in Damascus means that Israel's leaders will have to assess what is affecting their security.

Iran has now lost one of its most important defenses in the region. That will be cause for celebration in Israel, which has been fighting Iran-backed militias in Gaza (Hamas) and Lebanon (Hezbollah) since October last year.

Netanyahu, who declared that the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was a move to change “the balance of power in the region for years to come,” will see this as furthering that goal.

Mordechai Kedar, who was an expert on Syrian affairs during his 25-year career in Israeli military intelligence, said that the events in Syria are a major consequence of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. “It's not just Israel — it's the whole Middle East that's going to celebrate,” he told CNN.

The fall of the Assad regime is a “severe blow” to Iran, said Amos Yadlin, a former top general in the Israel Defense Forces, who once served as the head of the Military Intelligence Service.

“Rebels tearing down posters of (Iranian commander Qasem) Soleimani and Nasrallah from the Iranian embassy in Damascus show the severity of the blow to the axis,” he said. “Rebuilding Hezbollah appears to be more difficult with the loss of Syria, which has been the custodian of weapons from Assad, Iran and Russia.”

On the other hand, no one really knows – including Israel – who the rebels are in control of Syria, and how they will use their power.

The attack was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly an affiliate of al Qaeda. The US government has a $10 million bounty on the head of its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, whose real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Kedar said that despite their strong roots, the opening indications were positive. “So far, they make sense,” he said. “For example, they leave the government to run the country.”

Jolani has appealed to the rebels to leave government institutions unharmed. “For all the soldiers in the city of Damascus, it is strictly forbidden to approach government institutions, which will remain under the supervision of the former Prime Minister until they are officially handed over, and it is forbidden to shoot in the air,” he wrote in Telegram.

“Here, they learn from America's mistakes in Iraq. They don't want to destroy the country. They want this system to work – of course under different laws and different leadership. This is a sensible way of running the country.”

Yadlin said Jolani “showed great political acumen and conquered Syria almost without a fight.”

“In the short term, the rebels are not a threat to Israel,” he said. “If he is required to establish his rule in Syria, he will not engage with the most powerful military force in the region. Israel needs to shape the rules of the game when dealing with Syria as aggressively as it is doing in Lebanon.”

That view is not shared by all. Israel's Minister of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chiklisaid said in a statement that “the important thing is that most of Syria is now under the control of al-Qaeda and Daesh affiliates.” He called on the Israeli army to establish full control over the buffer zone since 1974 that exists between the territory controlled by Israel and Syria.

Indeed, Israel's priority will be to protect its border with Syria. The IDF said the deployment of troops to the Golan protected area was done “to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel.”

Shapira said he doubts that Israel will want to provoke the new leaders in Damascus by pushing into the Syrian-controlled Golan. “Taking more space means we have to deal with other players who may not be happy about it,” he added.

“There are a lot of different soldiers,” Shapira said. “It will be very challenging for Israel.”

The Israeli army, in its statement about the operation in the Golan, said: “The state of Israel does not interfere in civil conflicts in Syria.”

Israel's top security and political leaders have been talking a lot about events in Syria – no doubt, as they assess what to do.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Assad's ouster underscored the need to “create a strong regional alliance with Saudi Arabia and the countries of the Abraham Accords (Bahrain, UAE, Morocco, Sudan) to jointly address regional instability.” The Iranian axis has become very fragile, and Israel needs to aim for full political gains that will also help Gaza and the West Bank.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN's Abeer Salman and Mike Schwartz in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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