Something unprecedented is happening in southern Syrian areas being occupied by Israel's military. In the wake of Bashar al-Assad's overthrow, Israel is actually stealing or in its words "confiscating" former Syrian Army weaponry and heavy equipment, even tanks.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged in a statement Wednesday that soldiers operating in Syria have taken more than 3,300 weapons and other gear belonging to the Syrian Army. An IDF statement on X featured video of transporting an abandoned tank from Syria.
Assad fled the country as the al-Qaeda linked group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered the environs of Damascus on December 8 of last year.
Since then Israel has mounted literally hundreds of attacks degrading and destroying former Syrian military complexes, bases, and weaponry. Israeli officials have explained that this is to prevent Syria's advanced weapons from ever being used against Israeli again, or from falling into the hands of the Iranians or their proxies.
Israel has also been taking and occupying Syrian villages and territory, including the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon, and reportedly positioning forces a mere 20 miles from the Syrian capital.
Syria analyst Charles Lister, who has long been in support of radical armed groups which sought to topple Assad, has commented that "Israel hasn't just been destroying Syria's military infrastructure and heavy weaponry in recent weeks, it's also been taking it, intact, back to Israel - tanks, missiles, rockets and more. All of this via a de facto invasion of sovereign territory."
Most of the equipment is reported to be Russian-made. Another regional analyst, the University of Oklahoma's Joshua Landis has written, "Israel picks up lots of second-hand military equipment from its new conquests on Syria's front lines."
Indeed Israel appears to be positively boasting about this in its official social media postings. But Syria no longer has an army to deal with it, so essentially the IDF is now acting with complete impunity in southern Syria and the Golan region. Assad once had the most advanced air defense systems in the Middle East, but Israeli warplanes have destroyed all the anti-air batteries at this point.
Any future Syrian government which emerges is left with nothing at this point. Forces of the IDF’s 210th "Bashan" Division have continue operations inside Syria to "provide security and protection for the residents of Israel and the Golan Heights in particular," according to the IDF's official statements justifying the land and equipment theft.
The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has of late urged Washington to pressure Israel to withdraw from the extended Golan buffer zone as well as Mt. Hermon. But post-Assad Damascus has zero leverage, as there's no military infrastructure left to speak of.