The Turks are not yet at the border, but the IDF fears the illusion of quiet: "There are already hostile elements"
Against the backdrop of concerns over Ankara's deepening foothold in Syria, the IDF clarifies that no Turkish forces have been identified near the border so far, but they are preparing for explosive devices and continuing to raid villages. At the same time, the army and police are changing their handling of the "Bashan rioters" who cross the border and are diverting forces. A status report from the "quiet sector" that could still flare up.
The relative quiet on the Golan Heights border can be misleading. While tensions between Israel and Turkey are rising, and the security establishment is monitoring Ankara's attempts to deepen its influence in Syrian territory, the reserve soldiers manning the posts in the sector are required to treat it as an explosive front in every respect. Among the forces, it is emphasized that the very feeling that this is the quietest sector among all fronts could turn into a dangerous illusion — one that the fighters are required to shake off at any moment.
Security officials in the sector say that despite reports of the establishment and strengthening of Turkish involvement in Syria, no direct presence of Turkish forces has been identified so far in the area adjacent to the Israeli border — nor has there been a dramatic change in daily activity patterns. However, the IDF maintains full freedom of action and continues to carry out proactive raids in the villages adjacent to the fence, with the aim of locating and confiscating weapons and preventing the establishment of hostile elements.
In the security establishment, it is emphasized that the abundance of weapons in Syria, alongside the weakness of the government and the lack of governance in parts of the country, keep the sector at a high level of explosiveness. The operational working assumption is that hostile elements are operating in the area, even when relative quiet is maintained on the surface. The scenario considered most likely is the planting of explosive devices against IDF patrols — a threat that the forces are required to take into account at every moment.
The attitude of the local population toward the forces is also not taken for granted. In the IDF, they say that no inherent and overt hostility toward the soldiers has been identified in the Syrian villages at this stage, but every village could quickly turn into a focal point from which activity against Israel would emerge. Toward the Druze population, on the other hand, more sympathetic relations and cooperation are maintained, based on a common interest in maintaining its security against extremist elements and against the regime.
Alongside the ground threats, the IDF is also monitoring technological development in the Syrian arena. Unlike the Lebanese arena, the forces in the Golan have not yet encountered suicide drones, but the security establishment is aware that this is a capability that could spread quickly — whether through state actors or through local production.
A change in policy toward border crossers
However, one of the challenges that bothers the forces almost weekly does not come from militias or terrorist organizations, but from Israeli citizens who cross the border into Syria. The group calls itself "Pioneers of the Bashan," but among security officials in the sector, the less flattering nickname "Bashan rioters" has already stuck to it. According to sources in the sector, this is a phenomenon that repeats itself with a frequency of about once a week and places the forces in a complex operational dilemma.
Beyond the fact that it is a prohibited border crossing, the citizens who cross the fence risk their lives: they could be hit by the forces' fire or encounter hostile elements on the Syrian side. The IDF warns that every such incident requires an alert and diversion of forces, distracts attention from the central defense mission, wears down the fighters' spirit, and forces them time after time to deal with events that are not part of the defense mission for which they were stationed in the sector.
The IDF and police have recently carried out significant actions and changed the pattern of operation against those same elements, in an attempt to create a more effective enforcement sequence and reduce the number of border crossing incidents. The army is refraining at this stage from detailing all the changes, but sources indicate that they concern the entire chain of handling the event: from the stage of prevention and early detection, through the operational response in real time, and to the procedures after capture — including the exhaustion of the law and the tightening of punishment against those who cross the border.
The IDF's defense concept in the sector currently relies on a combination of permanent and temporary components, which are intended to create a barrier as deep as possible between the threats on the Syrian side and the communities in Israel. However, the security establishment emphasizes that this is a dynamic concept, which will need to change if the threat from the northeast develops. If the involvement of foreign countries in Syria increases, or if local militias improve their capabilities and increase their activity near the border, the IDF may be required to update accordingly the scope of forces, the method of deployment, and the methods of operation in the sector.
Behind the operational preparation in recent months are mainly reserve soldiers, including members of the 228th Brigade, who man the sector for long periods. The IDF emphasizes the personal, family, and economic price paid by those serving, and their contribution to maintaining a stable defense line against a border that seems quiet — but could change within a short time. Sources in the sector say that the ability to hold the line over time relies to a large extent on the resilience and fighting spirit of the reservists, and credit them with the operational stability that is maintained on the border.
