Geneva – The United Nations Security Council must act swiftly and forcefully to prevent Israel from encroaching on Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, guarantee that its forces leave the southern regions of the country, and compel it to abide by international law.
Israel’s continued aggression against Syria is a blatant violation of both international law and the UN Charter. It’s clear that Israel’s goal is to increase its military and security influence in southern Syria and impose a new reality of occupation through its illegal policy of forceful annexation.
Israel took advantage of the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad government in December 2024 to launch a massive military campaign in which it destroyed the Syrian army’s fundamental capabilities in order to weaken its capacity to defend Syrian sovereignty and alter the regional power structure. In a flagrant breach of international law, Israel escalated the situation by unilaterally declaring the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement between the two nations to be terminated, allowing it to occupy the buffer zone along the border. It also increased its nearly daily incursions into Syrian towns and villages in the governorates of Sweida and Quneitra, and established nine military installations in the Golan Heights and occupied Mount Hermon.
The international system’s disgraceful inability to hold Israel accountable for the genocide in the Gaza Strip is not only a failure, but has also played a significant role in inciting Israel to intensify its transgressions and break international law more brazenly and publicly. This inaction on the part of the international community has allowed Israel to completely circumvent its legal and moral obligations and act as an entity above the law, enabling it to impose new realities by force without fear of any repercussions in a clear challenge to international rules and institutions—revealing the hypocrisy of the Western-led global legal system.
Senior Israeli officials have openly admitted to occupying parts of Syria, reaffirming their intention to use military force to impose a new reality on Syrian territory. Israel’s attempts to impose such military control and its grave violations of Syria’s sovereignty were reflected in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unilateral declaration on 25 February that Israel “will not allow” the presence of any Syrian army “to enter the area south of Damascus”, emphasising that Israel demands “the full demilitarisation of southern Syria”.
Netanyahu further stated in his remarks that Israel “will not tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria”, reaffirming Israeliefforts to use ethnic and sectarian divisions as a cover for meddling in Syria’s internal affairs—a grave transgression of the principle of non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states—and to impose facts that support its unlawful expansionist policies.
Israel has committed serious human rights violations during its invasion of Syrian towns and villages. Israeli forces have stormed and searched dozens of homes, detained civilians before eventually releasing them, and conducted massive bulldozing operations to establish fixedmilitary points. Israel has also seriously violated international humanitarian law, particularly the regulations for the protection of civilians during times of conflict, by interfering with the work of journalists and medical personnel, and in certain cases, attacking them. It has also engaged in activities like heavy aircraft flying and flare dropping that were intended to incite fear among the populace.
Israel’s unlawful attempt to forcibly impose changes to the legal and political status of the Syrian state is a blatant breach of international law, and the Israeli military occupation of parts of southern Syria has had serious repercussions. Israeli actions in southern Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territory demonstrate a systematic pattern of human rights violations, exposing Syrian civilians to the risk of grave crimes like forced relocation, arbitrary arrest, killing, and the confiscation of land.
Given that international law prevents the use of force to occupy a sovereign state’s territory (even under the guise of “security concerns”), Israel’s arguments for occupying and attacking southern Syria are without legal foundation. Any reliance on the principle of self-defence outlined in Article 51 of the UN Charter is nullified by the lack of animmediate threat to, or actual attacks on, Israel from Syrian territory. Therefore, even if it is temporary, the Israeli occupation of Syria is an illegal act of aggression under international law and a crime of aggression under Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli army’s most recent high-profile attacks occurred on 25 February when it used roughly 50 military vehicles and mechanisms to conduct a ground invasion between Syria’s Daraa and Quneitra governorates, near the border. Israelalso launched intense airstrikes that day against Syrian military installations in the countryside of Damascus, Daraa, and Quneitra, killing at least two people.
These Israeli attacks are a grave breach of international law, particularly the fundamental tenets that safeguard state sovereignty and forbid using force against states without a valid reason. Any unwarranted military intervention is illegal under international law as an act of aggression,since Article 2, paragraph 4 of the UN Charter expressly states that states’ independence and territorial integrity must be respected, and that the use or threat of force against any state’s political independence or territorial integrity is forbidden.
A fundamental tenet of the international system is the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of states, which forbids any state from employing military force to accomplish strategic or political objectives beyond the bounds of lawful self-defence. Given the public declarations of Israeli officials stating that their intention to target any military presence in southern Syria, it is evident that these military operations are not justified on any legal grounds. Instead, these operations constitute an attempt to illegally alter the region’s boundaries, in flagrant violation of pertinent Security Council resolutions, such as Resolution 497 of 1981 denouncing the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights. Resolution 497essentially affirms the illegality and invalidity of any change to the legal, material, or demographic status imposed by Israel on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The principles of international humanitarian law require that civilians and civilian-owned property be strictly protected during armed conflicts, as parties to the conflict must distinguish between military and civilian targets and refrain from causing excessive collateral damage. Israel has blatantly broken these rules by attacking populated areas and causing infrastructure damage, both of which could be considered full-fledged international crimes under the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute.
In addition to endangering the Syrian state, Israeli attacks have the potential to jeopardise regional and global security, particularly given the international community’s failure to compel Israel to abide by international law and stop its unlawful occupation of Syrian territory. The international community needs to act quickly and decisively to prevent further Israeli attacks on Syria, safeguard civilians, and pressure Israel to abide by international law, including the relevant Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter. The activation of international accountability mechanisms, such as the UN General Assembly and Security Council, is necessary to guarantee the implementation of legally binding actions requiring Israel to halt its aggression and completely evacuate the territories it has occupied in therecent months.
To make sure that those responsible for the aforementioned grave breaches of international law are held accountable and that their violations are documented, it is also critical that international investigation and accountability mechanisms be activated.
Documenting Israeli violations in southern Syria is crucial as a first step towards international accountability; human rights organisations and other appropriate bodies must highlight Israel’s crimes as grave transgressions that necessitate the prosecution of all perpetrators in international courts.
As Israel’s crimes in Syria pose a threat to global security and necessitate an immediate international investigation to ensure justice for the victims and prevent future crimes, the Security Council must refer the matter to the International Criminal Court.
In addition, the Syrian government must cooperate with international accountability mechanisms and join the International Criminal Court. Euro-Med Monitor emphasises that this is a necessary step to secure justice for victims, in accordance with international law, and to ensure accountability for all parties involved in crimes committed on Syrian territory.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe
