In an address to new officers at an IDF graduation ceremony, Netanyahu warned the Sunni jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose leaders rule Syria following the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, that Israel “will not allow forces of HTS or the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus.” He said that the Israel Defense Forces “will remain in the Hermon sector and the buffer zone [in the Syrian Golan Heights] indefinitely to protect our communities and thwart any threat.”

Furthermore, Reuters reported, citing four sources familiar with the matter, that Israel is pressuring the U.S. to ensure Syria remains weak and fragmented, including by allowing Russia to maintain its military bases there to counter Turkey’s growing influence in the country.

Israeli officials, alarmed by the Sunni Islamist rulers now in power in Syria with Ankara’s backing, have conveyed to Washington that they pose a threat to Israel’s borders, according to the sources. “Israel’s biggest fear is that Turkey will intervene to protect the new Islamist regime in Syria, which would then become a base for Hamas and other militants,” said Aron Lund, a fellow at the U.S.-based Century International research institute and a Middle East analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI).