Israelis lay foundation stone for settlement in Syria beyond Golan Heights

A group of Israelis crossed the security fence in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights on Monday, holding a ceremony they described as laying the foundation stone for what they called the first settlement beyond the fence.

They called the settlement "Navi Habashan", claiming this was a biblical name referring to a wide region east of the Jordan River, encompassing parts of the Golan Heights and southwestern Syria, described in biblical sources as fertile and rich.

The settler group, which calls itself "Halutzei Habashan", announced that families and young people had taken part in the ceremony.

During the event, the family of an Israeli soldier, Yehuda Dror Yahalom, who served in the Golani Brigade and was killed during the 2024 invasion of southern Lebanon, established a memorial corner for him in the settlement and planted flowers there.

Members of the group wrote, according to the Hebrew news website Walla on Tuesday: “Habashan is the inheritance of our ancestors. Here we see the empty expanses of our land calling us to return and settle in it. We call on the government of Israel to expel the enemy from all areas of Habashan and to permit settlement there.”

In a WhatsApp group belonging to Halutzei Habashan, the settlers said the "activity" was organised on their own initiative without government support. They nevertheless expressed hope "that it will be possible to obtain support in the future during the process of settlement in the Habashan area".

The activists also stressed that the event was held without support from the Israeli army. They claimed the name of the settlement was inspired by a large city in the region that Jews had purportedly inhabited in ancient times.

The Israeli army said later that it had detained the settlers, accusing them of committing a "criminal offence".

"Earlier yesterday, a report was received about several vehicles carrying Israeli citizens who crossed the border fence into Syrian territory," an Israeli army statement said.

"The suspects were detained by the forces in the field and summoned for questioning by the Israeli police. The army stresses that this is a serious incident, constituting a criminal offence and endangering both the public and army forces," the statement added.

Israel captured the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, building dozens of illegal settlements there since then.

After the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, it proceeded to occupy parts of Syria beyond the Golan, in violation of a 1974 disengagement agreement negotiated by the UN.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been one of the most vocal advocates of expanding Israeli settlement in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, repeatedly stressing that the territory will "forever remain part of Israel".

In December 2024, his government approved a plan to double the settler population in the area, allocating millions of dollars in incentives for new residents.

However, Israel has stopped short of attempting to build official settlements beyond the security fence into Syrian territory. 

Monday’s incident follows a similar case in Lebanon earlier this year. In February, about 20 Israelis crossed the border into Lebanese territory. The group had intended to reach what they claimed was a fifth-century grave, which they referred to as the "Tomb of Rabbi Ashi".

At the time, the occupation authorities said that police forces arrived at the site, and after coordination with army units, detained some of the suspects near the border.

They were transferred for questioning at the Kiryat Shmona police station.

The incidents highlight a growing phenomenon of Israeli groups attempting to assert purported biblical claims in areas beyond the recognised lines of occupation, in both Syria’s Golan Heights and across the Lebanese border.

Despite Israel's condemnation of the unofficial settlement attempts, Netanyahu recently sparked outrage after openly endorsing a vision of a "Greater Israel", invoking the biblical idea of a state stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates.

Such a vision implies Israeli claims not only over all of historic Palestine but also parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.

The Israeli premier's statement drew condemnation from more than 30 Arab and Islamic countries as a dangerous ratcheting up of tensions in the region.