JERUSALEM \/ ISTANBUL <\/p>\n
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tel Aviv is not on a path toward peace with Damascus, claiming that the Yemeni Houthi group is active in Syria.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael is not moving toward peace with Syria because there are forces within its borders thinking about invading Golan towns,\u201d Katz claimed during a closed session of the Knesset\u2019s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He claimed that Houthis are allegedly operating in Syria, accusing the Yemeni group of planning what he called a \u201cground invasion\u201d of northern Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother matter that concerns Israeli officials is the Druze community in Syria,\u201d he said in his comments cited by the public broadcaster KAN on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Israeli army is ready to \u201cintervene once again, including by closing the border\u201d in case of any incident in southern Syria, he threatened.<\/p>\n
There was no comment from Syrian authorities or the Houthi group on the Israeli minister\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n
Syrian authorities have repeatedly affirmed that they guarantee equal rights to all sects in the country and accused Israel of using the Druze as a pretext to interfere in the country\u2019s internal affairs.<\/p>\n
In recent months, Israeli-Syrian meetings have been held in a bid to reach security arrangements that would ensure Israel\u2019s withdrawal from the Syrian buffer zone, which it occupied in December 2024.<\/p>\n
After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria.<\/p>\n
Government data showed that the Israeli army has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes on Syria and more than 400 cross-border raids into the southern provinces since December 2024.<\/p>\n