The Israel Defense Forces on Friday accused the Syrian army of helping the Hezbollah terror group establish a permanent military presence on the Golan Heights, releasing video footage showing a senior Syrian officer visiting the region.
"Even during the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...period, the new commander of the Syrian army’s 1st Division, Lua’a Ali Ahmad Asa’ad, continues to help and allow the Hezbollah terror group establish a front on the Golan Heights," the IDF said in a statement.
The Israeli military released video footage from the border from one of its surveillance cameras, showing Asa’ad and a number of other army officers walking around an unidentified area along the border.
"In the clip, the new division commander is seen on a patrol of the front, including passing through areas known to be used by Hezbollah, with the head of Hezbollah’s southern command, Hajj Hashem," the IDF said.
In a tacit threat, the military added that the Syrian regime would "be held responsible for all enemy activities emanating from its territory."
"Consider this a warning," the IDF added.
The military refused to comment on when and where exactly the footage was filmed.
Israel has long maintained that it would not accept the establishment of a permanent military presence in Syria by Hezbollah or Iran, which backs the Lebanese terror group.
Earlier last month, the IDF accused the Hezbollah terror group and the Syrian army of being behind an attempted sniper attack against Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights earlier this month, which was thwarted by an Israeli strike on the suspects’ car.
The military said at the time that in the months preceding the incident Israeli troops saw Hezbollah fighters and Syrian soldiers preparing for an attack, filming the border area with smartphones and professional cameras and measuring wind speed from different locations in the supposedly demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries ‐ in what the IDF said appeared to be efforts to identify a target and improve snipers’ accuracy.
The IDF said that on March 2 fighters were seen preparing to carry out the attack from a car.
"When there was an operational opportunity, the car being used by the cell was attacked by an IDF helicopter," the military said.