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Will Israel Invade Syria? Amid Rocket Attack Fears, Israeli Defense Forces

“It’s clear that Iran is behind all of the terror attacks here [in the Golan] in the past two years”, the officer was quoted by Haaretz as saying.

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“All of the attacks in the Golan Heights sector since December 2013 have been carried out with Iranian direction”, a senior IDF Northern Command officer told reporters on Sunday.

Last week, the army held a large-scale drill simulating a possible advance into Syria and the evacuation of Israeli civilians from border communities.

The Israeli government has declined to confirm any of the reports.

“We are prepared for every scenario”, he says. “This is a big threat…” Kurdish fighters have been a big presence within the battle towards ISIS, and up to date studies state that they could have been attacked with mustard fuel, fueling fears that ISIS has chemical weapons.

In January, the Shiite militant group confirmed that six of its members had been killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Golan Heights, including the son of one of the group’s infamous commanders, Imad Mugniyeh. Israeli authorities estimate that close to the demarcation line with Syria within the Golan Heights there are a whole lot of militants of Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terror group that’s allied with the Assad regime and Iran.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Aug. 13 released, for the first time in 60 years, a document outlining Israel’s defense strategy.

There have been several Israeli air strikes against Syrian territory since the civil war began in 2011.

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The IDF believes that most Syrian Druze in the border area remain loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. This became evident this summer when Newsweek and other outlets reported that Israel had been treating injured rebels so long as they did not harm the Druze population in the Golan.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks into Syria from the Golan Heights in January 2013