Israeli strike aborted after troops spot settler curls on Syria border

Nahariya,UPDATED: Jul 29, 2026 22:13 IST

The Israeli military recently stopped a night strike in southern Syria after soldiers noticed long curls hanging from the temples of the men they were tracking and realised they were religious Jews, not Syrian militants trying to breach the border. The men had crossed into Syria and were on their way back to Israel.

The incident, first reported by Israel's public broadcaster and confirmed by the military to The Associated Press, has drawn attention to a fringe group of Israeli settlers that has carried out repeated incursions into southern Syria in the hope of eventually establishing Jewish settlements there. Israel's military has occupied the area for more than a year, but such civilian crossings have become a regular occurrence only in recent weeks.

The groups, whose members number in the dozens, have tried to cross from Israel into Syria every few days in recent weeks. The military has been tasked with stopping them. While most Israelis see them as a fringe movement, the wider settlement movement has strong supporters in Israel's far-right government. The best known of these groups is called Pioneers of Bashan.

Formed early last year, Pioneers of Bashan is a group of right-wing Israeli activists seeking to establish Jewish settlements inside Syria. It is named after the biblical region of Bashan, which includes part of modern-day Syria and neighbouring Jordan. The group is focused on an area of southwestern Syria that includes the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Sweida.

Part of this area, including the summit of Mount Hermon, is in a "buffer zone" that Israel declared in December 2024, soon after former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in an insurgent offensive. In Scripture, the region was known for fertile land and later came to be linked with strength and divine providence. In the Bible, the Israelites under Moses conquered Bashan from the mythical King Og, and it was later handed to some of the Israelite tribes.

Members of the group say they have a historical right to the land and argue that a Jewish presence there would help Israel defend the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed, a move not recognised by most of the international community. Some also say settlements there would protect members of the Druze religious minority after violence last year between Druze groups, Sunni Bedouin tribes and Syrian government security forces. Hundreds of civilians, mostly Druze, were killed in sectarian revenge attacks.

Amos Azaria, a leader of Pioneers of Bashan, said the group wanted to establish a "humanitarian corridor" from Israel to the Druze enclave of Sweida by depopulating nearby Sunni-majority areas. "The entire Daraa district ... must be cleared of the enemies seeking our destruction and instead be filled with Jewish settlement," said Azaria, a computer science professor at Ariel University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The group first wants to set up a Jewish outpost in southern Syria next to the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Outposts, often described by settlers as "young settlements", are usually set up in the hope that the Israeli government will later legalise them. That is how many Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which rights groups say are major drivers of settler violence and the displacement of Palestinians, began.

So far, the group's incursions into Syria have been brief, with the military removing activists before they could build anything. Videos posted on the group's X account on July 5 show religious teenagers sitting on the ground with their arms linked as soldiers try to pull them apart. Another video shows soldiers pushing some activists and zip-tying their hands behind their backs. A video posted in April shows several dozen activists waving Israeli flags and chanting on the roof of a house said to be on the outskirts of the Syrian village of Hader in Quneitra, while Israeli soldiers look on.

The Israeli military says it has taken a firm line on the border-crossers. It has repeatedly said that the group diverts soldiers from military operations and puts their security at risk. It says civilians caught crossing the border are detained and handed over to police, and that it "expects law enforcement authorities to bring those involved to justice". Israel's Channel 12 reported last week that no indictments have been filed so far.

The activists say they have close ties with people in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Several ministers have backed their cause, and the group's social media accounts show meetings with at least two cabinet ministers, Amihai Eliyahu and Shlomo Karhi. "We have support from friends in the government and many members of the Knesset," Azaria said.

Syrian officials have not commented publicly on attempts by Israeli settler groups to enter Syria. The Syrian government has, however, condemned Israel's occupation of southern Syria and has repeatedly called for Israeli forces to withdraw and for international intervention. Israeli troops have also carried out incursions and raids in parts of Syria outside the buffer zone, sometimes clashing with local residents, who have increasingly tried to block roads to stop them.

Since October 7, 2023, a similar movement has occasionally marched along the Gaza border calling for settlements to be re-established in the Gaza Strip. Israel removed its 21 settlements there as part of its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. In Lebanon too, the government has paid little attention to a fringe Israeli settler group called Uri Tzafon, or Awaken, O North, which has staged incursions into southern Lebanon, while focusing instead on calls for the Israeli army to withdraw from the area.

Still, some have warned against dismissing such groups entirely. Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri wrote on X about attempts by the Uri Tzafon group to enter the country: "It is true that they are a small and fringe group and they withdrew under orders from the Israeli army." But he also pointed to the movement to settle the West Bank, which began with a small group of right-wing religious activists known as Gush Emunim, "which in its early days was a small group that faced some obstacles and difficulties."

The recent border incident has therefore highlighted a small but active settler movement that has been trying to enter southern Syria repeatedly, while the Israeli military moves to stop it and neighbouring governments remain more focused on Israel's military presence in their territory.

With PTI Inputs

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