An IDF investigation into an attempted attack on Israel on Election Day earlier this month has found that Hezbollah operatives worked with Syrian soldiers to carry it out from the Golan Heights.
The inquiry into the thwarted attack near the village of Hader in the province of Qunietra found that Hezbollah attempted to attack IDF troops from a Syrian military compound in the demilitarized zone in the northern Golan Heights.
On March 2, the IAF struck a vehicle, killing one man believed to be a Hezbollah operative. Syria’s SANA news agency reported that Israel struck Syrian government forces, wounding three soldiers and killing one civilian.
In the weeks leading up to the thwarted attack, soldiers from IDF intelligence units identified suspicious movements by Hezbollah fighters and Syrian soldiers in sensitive locations in the area, “which indicated the planning of an attack,” the IDF said, adding that the operatives were seen filming the border with smartphones and cameras and measuring wind speed.
“When there was an operational opportunity, the car being used by the cell was attacked by an IDF helicopter,” the military said in a statement. “The IDF has an ongoing campaign against the Hezbollah terrorist organization on the Golan Heights and acts by various means to thwart terrorist attacks on the State of Israel. The State of Israel sees Syria, the sovereign, as responsible for all that happens in its territory,” the IDF said.
Pictures from the scene showed a white truck in flames after the strike.
The investigation was led by OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram, OC Bashan Division Brig.-Gen. Amit Fisher and other senior commanders.
“Even on Election Day our enemies try to harm us,” Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement at the time. “This day, too, as on every day, we will cut off the hands of the enemy and not allow them to hinder our daily lives.”
The skirmish was the latest in a series of cross-border strikes against Hezbollah operatives in the demilitarized buffer zone. In February, Hezbollah operative Emad al-Tawil was killed in a drone strike near Hadar. In July, Mashour Zidan, a resident of the Druze village of Hader in the Syrian Golan Heights, was killed after an IED planted in his car exploded as he was driving near the town of Sasa in southern Syria.
Senior Northern Command intelligence officers said Hezbollah’s “Golan Project” began last summer following the reconquering of the Syrian Golan by regime troops.
The Golan Project has its headquarters in Damascus and Beirut. There are dozens of operatives operating in the Syrian towns of Hadar, Quinetra and Erneh who collect intelligence on Israel and its military movements in the Golan Heights.
According to the IDF, the Hezbollah operatives involved in the clandestine project focus on familiarizing themselves with the Syrian Golan Heights and on gathering intelligence on Israel and the border area.
The operatives have weaponry from the Syrian civil war, and if needed, will receive additional weaponry from Lebanon or existing arsenals kept by Hezbollah and Iran.