Israel is bolstering its forces on the once-quiet frontier with Syria where it believes Lebanese Hizbollah militants are preparing for the day when they could fight Israel.
Every night there is fighting in the villages across the frontier
Syria’s civil war has brought an end to decades of calm on the Golan Heights, a strip of land which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Battles between rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syrian villages nearby are being watched intensely by Israel’s military.
Hizbollah, which is also backed by Iran, has sent thousands of its own fighters to combat Syrian rebels, according to Israeli and Western estimates.
Israel last fought Hizbollah in a 2006 Lebanon war and still closely monitors the Lebanese border. Israel says Hizbollah has tens of thousands of rockets in its south Lebanon stronghold.
The Jewish state is worried Hizbollah is making initial preparations for future confrontation with it on a new front with Syria and is accruing valuable combat experience on the Syrian battlefield. An Israeli source said the group is gathering intelligence on Israel’s deployment on the strategic Golan plateau.
“It is not at an alarming level now but we understand their intentions,” said the source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the security and political situation in the area.
Hizbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened in May to turn the Golan into a new front against Israel.
“Since Nasrallah’s threat, more (Israeli) army companies have been sent up, more tanks,” an Israeli military source at the Booster military outpost on the Golan.
“Hizbollah has an intelligence presence (in the Golan) that we know of.”
Booster is about two kilometres from a disengagement line set after Israel and Syria fought on the Golan in 1973 and Israeli tanks have just moved back into the position for the first time since then.
Daytime is peaceful on the rocky outcrop that gives a turret-top view of Syrian villages below, with birdsong echoing across sun-scorched fields. That changes at nightfall.
“Every night there is fighting (in the villages across the frontier), explosions and shooting all through the night. This is the hottest spot on the Golan Heights,” Shilo said. “As far as we’re concerned, any bullet that crosses over is intentional.”
A UN observer force monitors the area of separation between Syrian and Israeli forces, a narrow strip of land running 70 kilometres from Mount Hermon on the Lebanese border to the Yarmouk River frontier with Jordan.
The observers have been caught in the middle of fighting between Syrian troops and rebels. Stray shells and bullets have landed on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan, and Israeli troops have fired into Syria in response.
The rebels have detained peacekeepers on several different occasions before releasing them. Japan and Croatia have withdrawn troops due to the violence as has Austria with the gap being filled by soldiers from Fiji.
Among the rebels fighting the Syrian army are jihadi and Qaeda-linked groups, which Israel says are also a future threat to the Jewish state.
“We know they are busy now but once it ends they will turn their guns on us,” said the milit-ary source.
“We have learnt our lessons from Sinai,” the source said.