Israel will expand settlements in the Golan Heights after the fall of Assad

The Israeli government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a “new front” had opened up on Israel’s border with Syria since the fall of the Assad regime under the Islamist rebel alliance.

Netanyahu has said he wants to double the population of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered illegally occupied under international law.

Israeli forces moved into the buffer zone that separates the Golan Heights from Syria days after Assad left, saying the change in control in Damascus represented a “collapse of the ceasefire.”

There are more than 30 Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, where about 20,000 people live. They are considered illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.

The settlers live next to about 20,000 Syrians, most of whom are Druze Arabs who did not flee when the area came under Israeli control.

Netanyahu said Israel would “continue to hold (the territory), promote its prosperity and settle it.”

The announcement came a day after Syria’s new de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, criticized Israel for its ongoing strikes on military targets in the country, which have reportedly targeted military targets.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented more than 450 Israeli airstrikes in Syria since December 8, including 75 since Saturday night.

Al-Sharaa – also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – said the strikes “crossed red lines” and threatened to escalate tensions in the region, although he said Syria was not seeking conflict with any neighboring state.

Speaking to Syrian TV, which was considered pro-opposition during the civil war, al-Sharaa said the country’s “war-weary situation after years of conflict and war does not allow for new confrontations,” according to Reuters.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment on his remarks, but previously said the strikes were necessary to stop weapons falling “into the hands of extremists.”

President Bashar al-Assad and his family fled to Russia and were granted asylum as the Islamist group al-Sharaa Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led other rebel groups in a blitzkrieg on Damascus.

The groups continue to form a transitional government in Syria, of which Al-Sharaa is the theoretical leader.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said this on Saturday Washington made direct contact with HTSwhich the US and other Western governments continue to label a terrorist organization.

The United Nations’ Syria envoy, Geir Pedersen, said on Sunday he hoped for a quick end to sanctions on the country to help the economy recover.

“We will hopefully see a quick end to the sanctions so we can see a real rally around building Syria,” Pedersen said after arriving in Damascus to meet with Syria’s interim government and other officials.

Elsewhere, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said Ankara was ready to provide military support to the new Syrian government.

“It is necessary to see what the new administration will do. We think it is necessary to give them a chance,” Guler said of HTS, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency and other Turkish media.