Israel will closely monitor the developments in Syria and will do everything to protect Israel's borders and security, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday during a visit to the Golan Heights.
The prime minister added that Israel will remain committed to its good-neighborhood policy with all peoples living in Syria.
"We are continuing the policy of good neighborhood, which we implemented when we opened a field hospital here [the Golan Heights], which provided aid to thousands of Syrians injured and harmed in the civil war. Hundreds of Syrian children have been born here, in Israel. Equally, we send a hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria: to the Druze, to the Kurds, to the Christians, and to the Muslims who want to live in peace with Israel," Netanyahu said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that the Israeli army had taken control of the buffer zone along the border with Syria to ensure the security of Israeli settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.
"Prime Minister [Netanyahu] and I with the approval of the Cabinet of ministers ordered the IDF to occupy the buffer zone and the dominating positions, to ensure security of all Israeli settlements on the Golan heights – Jewish and Druze ones – in order not to expose them to threats coming from the other side of the border," Katz said.
Netanyahu and Katz visited Mount Bental in the Golan Heights on Sunday morning.