IDF Releases Video of Troops Operating In Syria Buffer Zone

The Israeli Army released footage on Tuesday (December 11) showing what it said were troops operating in the buffer zone to protect “the residents of the Golan Heights and all Israeli civilians.”Israel denied on Tuesday it had advanced into Syria beyond a buffer zone with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by rebel forces.After his flight on Sunday (December 8) ended 54 years of Assad family rule, Israeli troops moved into a demilitarized zone inside Syria set up after the 1973 Middle East war. Israel calls the incursion a temporary measure to ensure border security.Some 55,000 people live on the Israeli-occupied Golan, about 24,000 of them Druze, an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam, according to analyst Avraham Levine of the Alma Research and Education Center specializing in Israel’s security challenges on its northern border. Many of the Druze adherents in Syria were long loyal to the Assad regime. Many families have members on both sides of the demarcation line. n18oc_world n18oc_crux