Israel's ambassador to the UN said the country had taken "limited and temporary measures" with an incursion into the demilitarized zone in the Syrian Golan Heights due to the "security threat" to its citizens.
Danny Danon assured an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council held behind closed doors that Israel "will not intervene in the conflict between rebels in Syria," according to a message posted on the social network X on Monday.
The diplomat said the incursion was launched after, on Saturday, "armed groups entered" the "buffer zone" between Israel and Syria, attacked a UN observer mission and took control of several of the mission's outposts.
The armed groups "seriously endangered the security of UN personnel," so the armed forces "assisted UN troops in repelling the attack," he said.
The diplomat enclosed a letter addressed to the president of the Council, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, with a copy to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. In the letter, he indicated that Israeli forces are positioned at points with defensive needs.
Hours earlier, Guterres argued that the Israeli army's incursion into the demilitarized zone of the Syrian Golan Heights violates the territorial agreement between the two countries, dating back to 1974.
"We believe that this will be a violation of the 1974 agreement, and agreements should not be violated," said Guterres' spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had taken the Syrian part of Mount Hermon, within the demilitarized zone, after the fall of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the capture of Damascus by Syrian Islamist rebels.
Israeli government sources later indicated that the troops had advanced no more than three kilometers from the border.
Israel captured part of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, before annexing the territory in 1981, an act that is not recognized by the UN.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz assured that he had no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of the neighboring country and asked the inhabitants of five Syrian cities located in the demilitarized zone to remain at home.
Although Israel has not officially confirmed it, Syrian media and activist groups have reported since Sunday that Israeli planes have been bombing Assad regime military targets in Damascus, including military airports and weapons depots.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the part of the Syrian Golan Heights occupied and annexed by Israel belongs to his country "for eternity."
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