A group of 50 Syrians, including armed individuals, approached the border with Israel in Mount Hermon on Wednesday. The IDF ruled out suspicions of an infiltration attempt but sent forces to monitor the group. Meanwhile, some visitors were evacuated from the site.
Troops detected the Syrians several hundred meters away from the border. Officials in the Northern Command said that four armed individuals, who were not in army uniform, were detected from 500 meters away.
Related stories:
Mount Hermon site managers said the IDF had issued an evacuation order which prevented them from going ahead with a guided tour of the site. "The army claimed that some group of people had been detected and that they want civilians in the site to be grouped together and that is why they were evacuated to the lower level."
Benny Gantz in Tel Aviv sukkah (Photo: Moti Kinmhi)
Earlier on Wednesday, a series of blasts were heard in the Baalbek area in Lebanon in what is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Lebanese sources provided conflicting reports about the blasts. The French news agency AFP reported that seven people had been killed.
Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said on Wednesday that "we're aware of the potential Iranian threat, Hezbollah's activity in Lebanon and the Syrian situation. Bashar Assad is slaughtering his people and in the meantime losing control of terror activity in Syria."
"In the future, not only will we have to face a familiar military threat from Syria and the Golan Heights, but we will also have to face a growing terror threat."
Maor Buchnik contributed to this report