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Israel on Alert as Syrians Fight at Border As Syrian Fighting Nears Border, Israel Considers Its Options
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Rebels fighting the Syrian government seized the only border crossing along the Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line in the Golan Heights on Thursday, according to the Israeli military and rebel groups, forcing the United Nations peacekeeping soldiers who patrol the crossing to vacate it and bringing the Syrian conflict ever closer to Israeli-held territory. ELYAKIM, Israel — Syrian rebel groups briefly took control Thursday of the only crossing between Israel and Syria, bringing the intense violence of that nation’s civil war closer than ever to the Golan Heights, where farmers were told to stay out of their fields, tourists turned away from cherry-picking and roads were closed.
Israeli forces were placed on alert along the frontier as the violence of the Syrian civil war threatened to spill over. At the same time, not 70 miles away, scores of Israel soldiers engaged in an elaborate combat exercise preparing for what is increasingly seen here as an inevitable war with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that has come to the aid of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
The rebel takeover of the border crossing, Quneitra, lasted for several hours. Later in the day Syrian state news media reported government forces had routed the insurgents and established control. Clashes in the area raged through much of the day. The confluence of events confronted Israel with the complex reality of a civil war just across the border in which both sides are hostile to the Jewish state. Hezbollah has vowed in recent weeks that it would facilitate attacks on Israel through the heights. And the most effective rebel force is made up of radical Sunni jihadists aligned with Al Qaeda while many of the other militias are led by self-identified Islamists.
The mayhem was enough to threaten the continuation of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, the longtime peacekeeping mission in the sensitive and disputed area. The result has been a kind of paralysis in Israeli society, where options are debated but no clear consensus has emerged about which outcome of the Syrian crisis is preferable or how to prepare for it. The situation grew even more worrisome for Israel on Thursday with hours of fierce battle at the Quneitra crossing, after which the Syrian government claimed it had regained control and the United Nations peacekeeping force that has patrolled the area for 40 years was at risk of disintegrating.
The Quneitra crossing is patrolled by Austrian United Nations peacekeepers, who were ordered to pull back for their own safety. “It’s definitely a heightened risk, if only because it blurs the situation,” said Daniel Nisman, a Middle East intelligence expert at Max Security Solutions, a Tel Aviv geopolitical risk consultancy. “What it means is that the Golan Heights is a lot more unstable and requires a lot more vigilance.”
Later in Vienna the Austrian government said it was withdrawing its contingent from the force. Austria’s chancellor, Werner Faymann, was quoted by APA, the Austrian press agency, as saying he had spoken with Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and “personally informed him about the decision.” Austria on Thursday pulled its 380 troops from the 1,000-member United Nations force that has patrolled the so-called buffer zone between Israel and Syria since a 1974 armistice agreement. In a statement, Israel’s foreign ministry said it regretted Austria’s decision and hoped “that it will not be conducive to further escalation in the region.” Analysts said the withdrawal of the United Nations force could turn Israel’s quietest border into a no-man’s land where terrorists are free to operate.
Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations peacekeeping forces, confirmed in an e-mail message that Austria had informed the United Nations of its intended withdrawal. “This is going to be one of the most complicated situations we are going to face in the near future,” said Amnon Sofrin, a retired Israeli general who now lectures at Israel’s National Defense College.
“Austria has been a backbone of the mission and their withdrawal will impact the mission’s operational capacity,” Ms. Guerrero said. “We are in discussions with them about timing, and with other troop-contributing countries to provide replacement troops.” Israeli military and political officials insist they do not want to get involved in Syria’s internal conflict, but will not hesitate to protect their own interests: stopping advanced weapons transfer to Hezbollah, or ensuring the safety of citizens in the heights. In recent weeks, the focus has been on a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting weapons convoys in Syria bound for Lebanon. But Thursday’s escalation in Quneitra, during which at least three mortar shells fell in open areas of the heights, returned attention to the cease-fire line, where the Israeli military has recently replaced reservists with highly trained soldiers, increased patrols and added heavy equipment.
She also said two personnel from the peacekeeping force were injured by mortar rounds fired in the area but did not further identify them. “It’s really a situation that is not clear, and can take a turn at any moment,” warned Aviv Oreg, a major in the military reserves who founded Ceifit, a firm offering research and analysis on global jihad. “As soon as one bomb would leak and hit a kindergarten, that’s a whole new ballgame.”
Austrians account for about 380 of the 1,000-strong United Nations force that has monitored the disengagement zone between Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights since 1974. The Philippines provides about 300 and India provides the rest. A fourth country, Croatia, withdrew its contingent earlier this year. Though there have been frequent clashes near the heights, with dozens of errant shells falling into Israeli territory, Thursday’s was the most serious threat yet to the territory, analysts said.
Twice in recent months a rebel group has taken groups of the Filipino peacekeepers captive, releasing them unharmed after several days. The Philippine government has been considering pulling its peacekeepers out of the area. A rebel group claimed on Facebook to have “liberated the border crossing with Israel” and to have “inflicted overwhelming losses” on the Syrian Army, destroying four of its tanks. Hours later, SANA, the Syrian state news agency, said government forces had “repelled terrorist groups” that tried to take over Quneitra, referring to the rebels. The Israeli military said two severely wounded Syrians were taken to an Israeli hospital, but that a number of others who tried to cross were treated and then returned through a different location.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing regret over Austria’s decision and said it hoped the Austrian withdrawal would “not be conducive to further escalation in the area.” The statement also said Israel expected the United Nations to maintain the peacekeeping force under the Security Council resolution that created it four decades ago. Israeli residents of the area reported loud explosions and thick walls of smoke over Quneitra starting at 4:30 a.m. and lasting much of the day. “This is the worst it’s been so far,” said Nadav Katz, who lives in Merom Golan, a 500-member kibbutz very close to the crossing. “We hear bombs, we hear mortars, we hear light arms, we hear bombardments of heavier weapons — whether these are tanks or cannons, I’m not sure. We hope at some point it will stop and things will calm down.”
But one senior Israeli government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, downplayed the importance of international peacekeepers and said that in general there was “skepticism among the senior Israeli leadership as to the utility of international forces or monitors when things get tough.” The army closed some roads and fields, but children remained in school and adults at work. At Kibbutz Ein Zivan, a community of about 80 families, tourists were not allowed to pick cherries as usual, but still visited the chocolate factory and rode on horses and tractors.
The official emphasized that he was not referring specifically to the Austrian decision or criticizing it, but that he was talking about “the larger picture.” David Spellman, 69, said he was supposed to have furniture delivered on Thursday but the store in Haifa called to cancel. Otherwise, he said, “The effect on life here is minimal.”
The Israeli government has long insisted on a doctrine of self-reliance regarding its security. “The dogs are going crazy,” Mr. Spellman said. “But we’re used to that from the exercises of the army.”
But analysts said that a disintegration of the United Nations peacekeeping force could certainly complicate the situation along the Israeli-Syrian frontier. As that was playing out, Israel continued to intensively plan for a third war in Lebanon, where it believes Hezbollah has amassed 60,000 rockets aimed in its direction. Military leaders say they have learned the lessons of their 34-day battle with Hezbollah in 2006, and that the next round will be short, deadly and urban: one top general recently described Lebanese homes as having “a living room and a missile room” right next to each other.
Amnon Sofrin, a retired Israeli brigadier-general who now lectures at Israel’s National Defense College, told reporters in a telephone briefing that the rebels were sending a message to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria that they were prepared to attack the government’s symbols after Syrian government forces and their Hezbollah allies from Lebanon pushed the rebels out of their symbolic stronghold of Qusayr this week. That is why the Army built a mock Lebanese village here at the Elyakim base, complete with three fortified underground tunnels, similar to what Hezbollah uses to store supplies.
Mr. Sofrin said that if the United Nations peacekeeping force withdrew, the buffer zone on the Golan Heights would become “a no-man’s land” where Israel might have to face the rebels more directly. On Thursday morning, a battalion of reservists culminated a five-day exercise by storming the village with gunfire, grenades and eventually a trio of tanks that rolled through its hills. Eight enlisted men in American-made camouflage uniforms mimicking those worn by Hezbollah in 2006 played the enemy.
As the fighting raged around Quneitra, the Israeli military declared the Israeli side of the crossing a closed military zone and ordered farmers to stay out of fields near the cease-fire line. “It seems really important now in this time, with all that’s happening in Syria,” said one of the Hezbollah actors, Ishay, who is 21 and spoke on the condition his last name not be used, according to military rules. “What they have here is what they do there.”
An Israeli military official said that two mortar shells had landed in open areas on the Israeli side of the frontier in the course of the fighting. Ishay and another actor, Adir, 22, said they fired at the reservists through windows and doors to attract them to a house, then threw fake grenades and shot their rifles, which were loaded with blanks, to stall them. They sneaked from building to building for about 90 minutes, then were declared defeated, as many of the reservists collapsed in naps on the floor after days with little sleep.
The Israeli military also confirmed that two injured Syrians had reached Israeli forces at the frontier and had been taken for treatment at a hospital in northern Israel. Israel Radio reported that the trauma unit at the hospital in Safed had to be temporarily evacuated after staff found a live fragmentation grenade in the pocket of one of the Syrians. A bomb disposal unit disarmed the grenade and afterward the staff continued to treat the fighter, the radio said. “We always lose — like the enemy,” Adir said. “Our enemies lose, too, in the end.”
SANA, Syria’s official news agency, said that Israeli ambulances had transported some injured rebels, whom it called terrorists, into the Israeli-occupied territories, which it said constituted “new proof of the close link between these terrorist groups and the Israeli occupation.” Isabel Kershner and Alyza Sebenius contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon.
Israel has repeatedly declared that it has no intention of getting involved in the Syrian civil war but that it will act to protect its own interests. Israel’s minister of defense, Moshe Yaalon, said this week that Israel would not tolerate the transfer of advanced weapons from the Syrian government to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia; a loss of Syrian government control over chemical weapons; or a heating up of the Golan frontier and a spillover of fire into Israeli-held territory.
Tensions have risen between Israel and Syria after three airstrikes on Syrian soil this year that targeted advanced weapons and were attributed to Israel.
There have been numerous instances of fire spilling over into the Israeli-held Golan Heights. The Israeli military said that much of it was assumed to be stray fire. But last month, Syria acknowledged it had intentionally attacked an Israeli target, a military vehicle that was shot at as it patrolled the cease-fire line. Syria said the jeep had crossed into its territory on the Golan Heights, which Israel denied.
In that instance and others, Israeli tanks have fired back several times at Syrian positions.
Mr. Assad of Syria warned recently that the government would retaliate against Israel for any further airstrikes and said that he was under popular pressure to open a new front against Israel in the Golan Heights.
Israel has beefed up its forces there in recent months and has been constructing a sturdy fence along the frontier.
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force was set up to monitor the cease-fire line and buffer zone established between Israel and Syria after the 1973 war.
As well as United Nations personnel, the Quneitra crossing is used by members of the 20,000-strong Druse community of the Israeli-held Golan Heights who are Syrian citizens and travel to Syria to study or marry. Druse apple farmers also ship their crops to Syria via the crossing.
Israel seized a portion of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and later effectively annexed the strategic plateau, which commands northern Israel and its main water sources.
Israel and Syria are still technically at war but the quiet that has prevailed for decades along the frontier has allowed Israel to develop the area as a military arena and a tourist destination. The wild and rocky terrain is also home to up to 20,000 Israeli Jews in more than 30 settlements although Israel’s annexation of the area has not been internationally recognized.

Reporting was contributed by Jodi Rudoren from northern Israel, Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon, and Rick Gladstone from New York.