Israel pushes case to control security in Syrian buffer zone, Gaza

Israel seized control of the 155-square-mile buffer zone separating it from Syria after the Assad regime that had ruled the country for more than half a century collapsed just over a week ago. It also put troops on the peak of Mt. Hermon, high ground in the buffer zone that offers a commanding view of strategically sensitive territory.

Visiting the buffer zone and peak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz told soldiers on Tuesday to set up fortifications and prepare for an extended stay. He called the peak “the eyes of the state of Israel."

Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the rebel leader who led the assault that ousted the Assad regime, said in an interview Monday that there was no justification for Israel’s military to have troops inside Syria. Katz called the rebels extremists and said they needed to be deterred.

Israel’s move into the buffer zone—created by a 1974 agreement between Israel and Syria that designated United Nations peacekeepers to be stationed there—was condemned by the U.N. and other countries including France, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, and Jordan, who called it a violation of international law that threatened Syria’s territorial integrity. Israel has said the agreement was void after Syrian soldiers abandoned their posts as the regime collapsed.

Meanwhile, signs that Israel is preparing for an indefinite presence in the Gaza Strip continued to grow, with Katz saying the military would maintain security control over the enclave just as it does in the occupied West Bank.

“My position on Gaza is clear," Katz said in a post on X on Tuesday. “After we defeat Hamas’ military and governmental power in Gaza, Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action just as it did in Judea and Samaria," Katz said, using the biblical term for the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority partially governs some areas in the West Bank while Israel maintains tight security control and regularly conducts military raids.

Katz’s comments were unusually strong for a senior official and come during crucial negotiations for a cease-fire deal in Gaza. A halt to the fighting has proved elusive for months in part due to disagreements over Israel’s insistence on retaining forces in parts of the enclave.

Palestinians and some Israelis worry that security control could lead to a long-term military occupation of the enclave. That would require a large and costly number of troops and saddle Israel with the task of administering a civilian government over a population of about two million people.

Analysts said the comparison to the West Bank is flawed because Israel has a security partner there in the form of the Palestinian Authority. It currently has no such partner in Gaza and could be responsible for civilian affairs such as schooling and garbage collection.

“With boots on the ground, Israel’s obligations increase," said Adil Haque, a professor at New Jersey’s Rutgers University who focuses on international law of armed conflict.

Israel sent troops into Gaza after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that left around 1,200 dead and approximately 250 taken hostage. More than 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the fighting since then, according to Palestinian health authorities, who don’t say how many were combatants, and swaths of the strip have been destroyed.

Netanyahu has previously said that Israel would maintain security control of Gaza but that the country has no interest in its governance. He has also previously ruled out the option of the Palestinian Authority administering the strip instead of Hamas. Members of his Likud party and other parties in his coalition have voiced support for much tighter control, including establishing Jewish settlements in the enclave.

The International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest tribunal, said in an opinion in July that Israel has violated various international laws in its decadeslong occupation of Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank. The court said that under international law, occupation is meant to be temporary, and that an occupying power has legal responsibilities toward residents of occupied territories.

Israel, the court said, has committed acts that suggest its occupation of Palestinian territory isn’t meant to be temporary and that Israel has neglected some of its duties as an occupying power. Israel has disputed the court’s opinion and jurisdiction.

Since the early days of the invasion of Gaza, the Israeli military has been building up a sprawling 18-square mile security corridor known as Netzarim—named after a former Jewish settlement in the strip. The corridor consists of military bases, outposts, electrical poles, cellular towers and even a synagogue and bisects the strip, controlling Palestinians’ movements. Those seeking to move south must traverse one of two checkpoints that go through the corridor.

Diana Buttu, a former Palestine Liberation Organization legal adviser who has worked on ICJ cases, said Katz’s comments and Israel’s construction of military infrastructure in Gaza suggests the long-term future is “heading in the direction of not only effective control, but outright military control of Palestinian lives in Gaza."

Israel unilaterally pulled its settlements and permanent troop presence out of Gaza in 2005, partly because they were seen as a security liability and as a way to kick-start peace negotiations with Palestinians. The move was viewed as a heavy blow to the ultraright settler movement, which has vowed to rebuild the settlements one day. Hamas took power in the strip two years later and ruled the enclave with an iron fist since until Israel’s invasion.

In November, Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf toured the area near the Gaza border with prominent settlement leader Daniella Weiss while looking at a map showing future planned settlements in Gaza. “Jewish settlement here is the answer to the terrible massacre," he said referring to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Lawmakers from Netanyahu’s Likud party have taken part in two major conferences calling to resettle the strip since the start of the war.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Hamas told mediators that it would agree to a deal that would allow Israeli forces to remain in Gaza temporarily when the fighting stops. Previous rounds of talks repeatedly faltered, but Hamas in recent weeks has displayed more flexibility on several key issues. The mediators said those include a willingness to accept Israeli forces remaining temporarily in the Netzarim corridor and the Philadelphi corridor, a tiny strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Write to Anat Peled at anat.peled@wsj.com and Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com