Israel’s military has seized a strategic mountain top in its contested border area with Syria and advanced on positions beyond it, reshaping the frontier potentially for the long term.

Qaeda spin-off HTS will come in two flavours only. Either submit and collude like the West Bank, or end up wrecked like Gaza There has been a flurry of “What next for Syria?” articles in the wake of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s hurried exit from Syria and the takeover of much of the country by al-Qaeda’s rebranded local forces.

Israel has seized land along its border with Syria and carried out air strikes on Damascus. Benjamin Netanyahu said IDF troops had captured a buffer zone in the Golan Heights on the same day a lightning rebel offensive toppled the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

Israel will hold on to swaths of land that formerly served as a buffer zone with Syria — with no plans for exiting the demilitarized region despite international outcry. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a trip on Tuesday to Mount Hermon — the highest peak in the 155-square-mile chunk of land nabbed by the IDF

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, entered Syrian territory Tuesday and said Israeli troops would remain in the area