Media: Israel building new military bases in occupied Golan Heights PHOTO

Israel, which claims its presence in Syria is temporary, is building two new military bases in the occupied Golan Heights.

“They are building military bases. How is that temporary?” asked Mohammed Muraiwid, the mayor of Jubata al-Khashab, who has watched Israel troops construct a new military outpost on the edge of his village, Caliber.Az reports, citing The Washington Post.

Satellite imagery shows more than half a dozen structures and vehicles in the walled Israeli base, with nearly identical construction five miles to the south. Both are linked by new dirt roads to territory in the Golan Heights that Israel captured in its 1967 war with its Arab neighbours. An area of cleared land, which experts say appears to be the beginnings of a third base, is visible another few miles south.

Hours after Assad’s grip on his country crumbled in December, Israeli tanks and troops broke through the “Alpha line” that has marked the ceasefire boundary over the past half-century and moved into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone inside Syrian territory, and in some cases beyond.

Israeli troops now come and go in the 90-square-mile buffer zone, which is supposed to be demilitarized, according to the 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria. Israel has said it considers that deal void following the Assad regime’s collapse. At its widest, the buffer zone is about six miles across, but at certain points Israeli troops have advanced several miles beyond it, local officials said.

The two new construction sites, located within what had until recently been Syrian-controlled territory, appear to be forward observation bases, similar in structure and style to those in the Israeli-held part of the Golan Heights, said William Goodhind, an imagery analyst at Contested Ground. The base in Jubata al-Khashab is more fully developed, while the one to the south appears to be under construction. The former would provide better visibility for troops, while the latter has better access to the area’s road network, as would a third base if built on the area of cleared land farther south, he said.  

By Khagan Isayev