Fringe Israeli settler group is sneaking into Syria to try to claim land
for a Jewish outpost
[July 29, 2026]
By NATALIE MELZER, ABBY SEWELL and JULIA FRANKEL
NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military was about to launch a
nighttime strike on a group of men in southern Syria when the soldiers
noticed the long curls dangling from the temples of their targets. The
troops held their fire.
These were not Syrian militants attempting to breach Israel's border but
religious Jews who had slipped into Syria and were on their way back.
The episode, first reported last week by Israel's public broadcaster and
confirmed to The Associated Press by the Israeli military, has helped
raise the profile of a fringe group of Israeli settlers that has staged
numerous incursions into Syria, where they hope to establish Jewish
settlements.
Israel's military has occupied the area in southern Syria for more than
a year, but the forays by civilian settler groups into the region only
became a regular occurrence recently.
The groups, with members numbering in the dozens, have attempted to
cross from Israel to Syria every few days in recent weeks. The military
is tasked with reining them in and, while most Israelis regard them as
fringe, the wider settlement movement in Israel has strong backers in
the country's far-right government.
The most prominent of the groups behind the incursions in Syria is known
as “Pioneers of Bashan.”
Pioneers of Bashan are named after a biblical region
Formed early last year, the Pioneers of Bashan are a group of right-wing
Israeli activists aiming to establish Jewish settlements inside Syria.
They are named after the biblical region of Bashan, which includes part
of modern-day Syria and neighboring Jordan.
They have their sights set on an area of southwestern Syria that
includes the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Sweida.
Part of this area, including the summit of Mt. Hermon, is a “buffer
zone” Israel declared in December 2024, soon after the ouster of former
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in an insurgent offensive.
The region was known in Scripture for its fertile land and came to be
associated with strength and divine providence. In the Bible, the
Israelites under Moses conquered the Bashan from the mythical King Og
and it was then handed to some of the Israelite tribes.
Members of the group claim a historical right to these lands and argue
that their presence there will help Israel defend the Golan Heights,
which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later
annexed — a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Some claim that Israeli settlement of the areas would protect members of
the Druze religious minority after violence erupted last year between
Druze groups and Sunni Bedouin tribes and Syrian government security
forces. Hundreds of civilians — mostly Druze — were killed in sectarian
revenge attacks.
Amos Azaria, a Pioneers of Bashan leader, said the group aims to
establish a “humanitarian corridor” from Israel to the Druze enclave of
Sweida by depopulating adjacent Sunni-majority areas.
“The entire Daraa district ... must be cleared of the enemies seeking
our destruction and instead be filled with Jewish settlement,” said
Azaria, a computer science professor at Ariel University in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The group aims to establish a Jewish outpost inside Syria
The group seeks first to establish a Jewish outpost in southern Syria
next to the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Outpost, which means
“young settlement" in Hebrew, is a term used by settlers to describe
rustic footholds in territory they desire.
Settlers normally establish outposts in the hope that one day Israel's
government will legalize them. That's how many Jewish settlements in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank — which rights groups say are major drivers
of settler violence and displacement of Palestinians — got their start.
So far their incursions into Syria have been brief. The military has
removed the activists before they have been able to build anything.
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A right-wing Israeli activist holds a sign which reads "Its about
time to settle in the Bashan", in the Israeli-occupied Golan
Heights, Tuesday, July 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Videos on the group's X account from July 5 show a group of
religious teens seated on the ground with their arms linked
together, as soldiers try to pry them apart.
A second video shows soldiers shoving several of the activists and
zip tying their hands behind their backs.
A video posted by the group in April shows several dozen activists
waving Israeli flags and chanting on the roof of a house said to be
on the outskirts of the Syrian village of Hader, in Quneitra, as
Israeli soldiers look on.
Israeli military says the group compromises its operations
Israel's military says it takes a firm hand with the
border-crossers. It has repeatedly condemned the group for diverting
troops' attention from military operations and compromising their
security. It says it detains civilians caught crossing the border
and hands them over to police, saying it "expects law enforcement
authorities to bring those involved to justice.”
Israel’s Channel 12 reported last week that no indictments have been
filed so far.
The border-crossers say they have cozy relationships with members of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Several government
ministers have expressed support for their cause, and the group’s
social media platforms document meetings it has held with at least
two cabinet ministers, Amihai Eliyahu and Shlomo Karhi.
“We have support from friends in the government and many members of
the Knesset," Azaria said.
Syrian, Lebanese governments
are more concerned about military occupation
Syrian officials have not commented publicly on the attempts by
Israeli settler groups to enter Syria.
The Syrian government has condemned Israel’s occupation of southern
Syria and frequently calls for Israeli forces to withdraw and for
the international community to intervene. Israeli troops have
carried out incursions and raids in areas of Syria outside the
buffer zone, sometimes clashing with local residents, who have
increasingly attempted to block roads to keep them out.
The Lebanese government has also paid little attention to a fringe
Israeli settler group — “Uri Tzafon,” or “Awaken, O North" — that
has staged incursions into southern Lebanon. Like Syrian officials,
the Lebanese government has focused on calling for withdrawal of the
Israeli army from southern Lebanon.
Still, some have warned against entirely discounting the settler
groups.
Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri wrote on X of the
attempts by the Uri Tzafon group to enter the country, “It is true
that they are a small and fringe group and they withdrew under
orders from the Israeli army."
But he pointed out that the movement to settle the West Bank began
with an embattled band of right-wing religious activists, known as
Gush Emunim, "which in its early days was a small group that faced
some obstacles and difficulties.”
——
Sewell reported from Beirut. Frankel reported from Jerusalem. AP
videojournalist Alon Bernstein contributed to this report from the
Golan Heights.
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