Israel seizes buffer zone in Syria’s Golan Heights after al-Assad falls 

Israel has “seized” territory in Syrian-controlled areas of the Golan Heights, as its military warned Syrians living in five villages close to the Israeli-occupied portion of the strategic area to “stay home”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he ordered Israeli forces to grab a buffer zone in the Golan Heights established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria, after a lightning advance by Syrian opposition forces ended Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that the decades-old agreement had collapsed and that Syrian soldiers had abandoned their positions, necessitating the Israeli takeover.

“We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” he said.

Israel captured a portion of the Golan Heights in the 1967 war and annexed it. The international community, except for the United States, views it as illegally occupied Syrian territory.

After Netanyahu’s comments, the Israeli military issued an “urgent warning” to Syrians living in Ofaniya, Quneitra, al-Hamidiyah, Samdaniya al-Gharbiyya and al-Qahtaniyah – all close to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights.

“The fighting in your area is forcing the IDF [Israeli military] to act and we do not intend to harm you,” Colonel Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman, said on social media.

Agricultural areas in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were declared closed military zones and some schools shifted to online classes in anticipation of unrest.

Syrians poured into the streets echoing with celebratory gunfire on Sunday after a stunning opposition advance reached the capital of Damascus, putting an end to the al-Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule but raising questions about the future of the country and the wider region.

Joyful crowds gathered in central squares in Damascus, waving the Syrian revolutionary flag in scenes that recalled the early days of the Arab Spring uprising, before a brutal crackdown and the rise of an armed uprising plunged the country into a nearly 14-year war.

Netanyahu hailed the removal of al-Assad on Sunday as an “historic day” that followed the blows delivered by Israel against al-Assad’s supporters Iran and Hezbollah in its recent war on Lebanon.

Speaking from the Lebanese-Syrian border, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said that Israel was taking advantage of al-Assad’s fall.

“What is happening is certainly to the benefit of the Israeli military, of the Israeli government,” Basravi said. “They are getting what they have said they have wanted all along: weaker neighbours, so that they can push their regional agenda.”

Meanwhile, Israeli media said on Sunday that the Israeli air force has bombed weapons depots in southern Syria and Damascus to prevent opposition groups from seizing them.

“We attacked ammunition depots in southern Syria and in the Damascus airport area for fears they might fall into the hands of armed groups and local factions,” the Israeli public broadcaster KAN quoted an unnamed Israeli security official as saying.

“Israel is working to thwart any potential threats and prevent any damage to its air superiority in Syria,” the official added.

Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said weapons depots and surface-to-surface missile stockpiles were the targets of Israeli attacks in Syria, without providing further details.

Speaking with Damascus’s military intelligence and customs headquarters ablaze in the distance behind him, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Adham Abu al-Hussam said that fuel depots in the compounds had likely been hit.

Two regional security sources told the Reuters news agency that the security complex, in Damascus’s Kafr Sousa district, had bene hit by Israel.

Israel has frequently targeted weapons shipments and military installations in Syria throughout the country’s war, citing concerns over the possible transfer of advanced weaponry to hostile groups, including Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias.

An Associated Press journalist in Damascus reported air attacks in the area of the Mazzeh military airport, southwest of the capital on Sunday.

The airport has previously been hit in Israeli air attacks, but it was not immediately clear who launched Sunday’s attack.

The Israeli military refused to comment on the reports and Israel often does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks in Syria.