In a complex overnight operation early Friday, the Israeli military transported 60 tons of humanitarian aid and supplies to Syrian refugees stranded in tent camps across the border in the Syrian Golan.
Dropping off supplies in four separate locations in an hourslong operation, Israeli troops provided the Syrians 300 tents, 13 tons of food, 15 tons of baby food, three containers of medical supplies and medication and 30 tons of clothing and shoes.
More than 120,000 people in southwestern Syria have been forced to flee since the government launched an offensive to recover the area near the borders with Jordan and Israel, a Syrian war monitor said this week.
The Syrian tent camps house several thousand refugees without access to water, electricity, food or basic amenities. In recent days, an influx of refugees has been recorded at these camps.
A video released by Israel's military showed soldiers loading aid into trucks on the Israeli-controlled side of the border and the cargo being then carried into vehicles by unidentified people on the Syrian side.
The humanitarian aid provided by Israel is in line with Israel's existing "good neighbor" policy pertaining to the conflict in Syria. Israel has been sending aid across the border for several years and has provided medical treatment to thousands of Syrians that reached the frontier with the Israel-controlled Golan.
But the IDF proclaimed that it would not allow Syrian refugees to cross the border and enter Israeli territory.
Tensions on the Golan Heights were running high on Thursday amid concerns in Israel that thousands of Syrian refugees would try to breach the border and seek shelter in the Jewish state.
The IDF said it was closely monitoring the situation as an increasing number of Syrian refugees amassed at the border area.
The refugees were fleeing the fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, supported by Russian airstrikes, and rebel groups in the country's southwest. Jordan has already said it would not allow any more Syrian refugees to cross its border.
Israel's primary interest, a senior defense official said, continues to be avoiding involvement in the war in Syria and "therefore, we will not intervene even when Assad tries to seize the areas bordering Israel."
The army, meanwhile, is preparing for a number of possible scenarios, including the deployment of Iranian forces, Shiite militias and Hezbollah fighters near its border, and increasing "spillover" – when errant mortar rounds fired by the Syrian army at rebel positions land in Israeli territory.
Meanwhile Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot embarked on an unexpected trip to Washington to meet with his American counterpart, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford.
Eizenkot and U.S. defense officials planned to discuss the American-Israeli military partnership and the "significant security challenges in the various arenas in the Middle East," the IDF said in a statement.
The purpose of the visit, another senior defense official said, was to coordinate military action against the Iranian presence in Syria.
Speaking at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Thursday at a memorial for soldiers who fell in the Second Lebanon War, President Reuven Rivlin remarked that "Iran continues its subversive actions in the Middle East and arms organizations near our border."
"The state of Israel will not stand idly by," he continued. "We will not allow Iran to establish a foothold in Lebanon or Syria and we expect to see focused international pressure to remove Iranian forces from the Fertile Crescent."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a pilot's training graduation ceremony at Hatzerim airbase in southern Israel, said: "We are constantly cultivating our strength; it costs a lot of money but it's worth every dollar. Our air force is stronger than ever and we have the best weapons and technologies."
"The air force displays its might defensively and offensively as an unparalleled strike force in the region and beyond," he continued. "We are surrounded by threats and the air force has a role in neutralizing them."
