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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will remain atop the strategic peak of Mount Hermon through the winter, according to defense minister Israel Katz on Friday.

The mountain is the highest in the region and dominates the surrounding landscape. Its position is crucial for radar and intelligence-gathering. It is divided between Israel and Syria, with Syria holding the peak, at least until now.

The mountain is covered in snow in the winter, and Israelis even enjoy a ski resort on their side of the mountain, but Israel also maintains a heavy military presence in the area, including the recently-formed 810th Mountain (or Alpine) Brigade.

As Breitbart News reported earlier this week, IDF special forces seized Mount Hermon from Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s troops abandoned their post with the fall of the regime on Sunday.

Israel has long had a base on Israeli territory further down the mountainside, but Syria held the peak.

In the Yom Kippur War of 1973, in which Syria and Egypt attacked Israel by surprise, Syrian troops briefly ousted Israeli soldiers from their base, and withstood two counterattacks, before a complex Israeli operation captured both the Israeli base and the Syrian base on top. Israel gave it back to Syria under an armistice agreement in 1974.

The Times of Israel reported Friday:

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday that he had ordered the military to prepare to stay atop the Syrian side of Mount Hermon during the coming winter months as Israel aims to prevent the border region from falling into the wrong hands following the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.

…

The Foreign Ministry on Thursday pushed back on international criticism of the takeover, saying the move was a temporary measure to prevent the border region from falling into extremists’ hands.

In a statement Friday, Katz said that “due to what is happening in Syria, there is a huge security importance to our holding of the Hermon peak and everything must be done to ensure the IDF’s preparations in the area, to allow the troops to stay there in the difficult weather conditions.”

It is unclear how long the IDF will hold the peak of Mount Hermon, but it may be preparing to do so indefinitely, given the peak’s strategic importance and the danger of allowing the Syrian rebels, many of whom are radical Islamists, to hold the high ground over Israeli territory.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.