The Strategic Importance of Mount Hermon

By Oliver Hegglin, Junior Fellow

7 February, 2025

When Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was swiftly overthrown on Sunday, December 8, 2024, Israel reacted immediately by taking advantage of what was effectively a power-vacuum in Syria. Nearly 500 military targets, including the entire navy and 90% of known surface-to-air missile systems, were allegedly destroyed. In addition, an incursion to take the strategically important Mount Hermon located in the United Nations supervised area of separation between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria was carried out. However, Mount Hermon holds not only military significance, but also historical and religious, making it a point of contention between Israel, Syria and Lebanon. Now it is firmly in Israeli hands, and Israel is unlikely to give up control of this all-too important mountain.

Geography and Geology

It is higher than any point in Syria and Israel, and only second to one other peak in Lebanon. Rising to 2,814 meters above sea level, the summit of Mount Hermon is located in Syria just on the border to Lebanon, some 40km from the center of the Syrian capital Damascus and visible from over 100km away. Called Har Hermon (sacred mountain) in Hebrew and Jabal el-Shaikh (snowy mountain) in Arabic, the mountain range is some 45km long and 25km wide at its longest points, shared by Israel, Syria and Lebanon, the latter of which hosts most of the mountain within its territory. Described as a form of block due to the believed lack of glaciers resulting in an absence of peaks, it runs northeast to southwest, with steep slopes in the east but a more gradual slope on the western side. To the north is the Beirut-Damascus highway, to the east the Damascus tableland, to the south the edge of the Golan basalt tableland, and to its west the Senir River valley.

Strong erosion has resulted in rough terrain features, including sinkholes and crags, and the lack of soil means there is nearly no vegetation. The porous features means rainfall is absorbed and reappears in karstic and tectonic springs at the foot of the mountain. Yet the peak is covered by snowfall for about two-thirds of the year, acting as the water source for the headstreams of the Jordan River. Most parts of Mount Hermon are uninhabited due to this lack of water and arable land, resulting in only a few villages on the lower parts of the mount which are inhabited primarily by minority groups such as Druze and Alaouites.

Biblical References

Mount Hermon has been considered sacred for thousands of years, with ruins of religious infrastructure, including Greek, going back to before the birth of Christ. It is also a candidate for the site where Christ’s transfiguration, where he revealed himself to be the Messiah to his followers, took place. Owing to its significance in both Christianity and Judaism, Mount Hermon is mentioned in the bible 15 times. It is also referred to in ancient poetry and the Jewish apocryphal Book of Enoch, in a story in which angels fell from heaven, took human women, and who’s offspring were the Nephilim.

It was conquered by the Israelites from the Amorites and acted as the northern border of the half-tribe of Manasseh, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The northern limit of the Promised Land for the Jewish people is marked by Mount Hermon and it was simultaneously the highest mountain in ancient Israel under Moses and Joshua. King David is also believed to have compared the dew from the mountain in northern Israel falling onto Mount Zion further south, to the unity of Israel.

Witness to the Arab-Israeli Wars

The Golan Heights saw military engagements between The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) during the 1967 Six-Day War from June 5 to 10. Syria had built a complex network of fortifications from where the Huleh Valley in Israel was shelled. Israel managed to take the area and in 1981 annexed it, but not before three engagements with the SAA in the 1973 Yom Kippur War challenged control over it. Ultimately, the SAA lost Mount Hermon to the IDF.

The 1973 war ended with a ceasefire and the establishment of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), established through United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 350 on May 31, 1974, and tasked with implementing UNSCR 338 (1973), mandating the maintenance of the ceasefire and disengagement as per UNSCR 242 (1967). A buffer-zone was established between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan, requiring Israel to withdraw from the mount. A UN post was set up on the summit which was included in the designated buffer-zone. It was parts of this same zone that Israel crossed into and beyond in December 2024.

December 2024

On Sunday, December 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the day before, with unanimous approval from his cabinet, he had ordered the IDF to take control of “the buffer zone and the nearby dominant positions”, noting that Israel would not allow any “hostile force” to do so instead. Defense Minister Israel Katz added that the move was to protect Jewish and Druze communities in the Golan alike. He added that Israel would hold Mount Hermon to identify threats “near and far” and Netanyahu justified their presence by referencing Syria’s uncertain future and their refusal to allow jihadi groups to fill the power vacuum in Syria which may intend attacks on Israel similar to the attack of October 7, 2024. Not wanting to take any chances, both offensive and defensive contingency plans are to be in place. In short, Israel justifies the incursion into Syria and the capture of Mount Hermon as a pre-emptive measure to ensure its security and to prevent future threats against it and its populace. Israeli leadership also claims this measure is temporary until another “arrangement is found” with a stable political-security establishment in Syria.

The capture itself was carried out by the Israeli’s Air Force’s elite Shaldag unit, which faced no resistance and found the peak and all installations abandoned by the SAA. The IDF began to install its own posts on Mount Hermon and erected defensive installations on the Golan Heights to prevent potential hostile incursions into Israel.

When explaining this decision on December 8, Netanyahu argued that the 1974 ceasefire agreement collapsed when the Assad-regime fell, as the state with which the agreement was signed no longer existed – an explanation the UN does not accept. On December 12, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres responded that it remained in force and called on Israel to withdraw from the buffer zone, calling the seizure an “extensive violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”. Some Arab and other countries also accused Israel of a land-grab for “more Syrian territories”, exploiting the instability in that country. And in January, Syria’s interim leader, Ahmed al-Shara, whose family also happens to come from the Golan Heights, said that Syria would continue to honor the agreement. This, after Netanyahu just a month prior and after the taking of Mount Hermon, said that he was waiting for clarity on the 1974 agreement by Syria’s new leadership.

It is unsurprising that Syria’s new leadership would say they would continue to abide by the agreement, as the alternative would be tantamount to a perceived threat against Israel. Al-Shara, likely knowing his power remains frail, is refraining from assertations over sovereignty in order to not antagonize Syria’s neighbors. Netanyahu meanwhile also said that the occupation of Mount Hermon was a temporary defensive measure until a “suitable arrangement” guaranteeing Israeli security was found. It is also intended to serve as a deterrence to the former-rebel group now holding power in Syria, which Katz accused of being an extremist Islamist movement hiding behind a moderate face.

This is because up until 2017, when al-Shara took over leadership of the group known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, it was an affiliate of Al-Qaeda. However there are also indications that this new Syrian leadership may be sincere in its efforts to establish positive relations with its neighbors, as the new mayor of Damascus, Maher Marwan, is to have asked the United States to put pressure on Israel to encourage the establishment of diplomatic connections. It is also believed that the new Syrian government demanded the USA pressure Israel to withdraw from Syrian territory, something Israeli officials claim they received no request for. And with the new administration in the United States being staunch supporters of Israel, this is also very unlikely to happen. And there yet is further indication that the IDF plans a long-term presence on Mount Hermon.

The High Ground

The military value Mount Hermon provides as an observation point over the Golan Heights, the Galilee and the Damscus area, has resulted in the peak being called the “eyes of Israel” and “eyes of the Middle East”, including by Katz. The summit oversees significant areas in Lebanon, including the Hezbollah stronghold of the Beqaa Valley, previously blocked to Israel by geographic features. And with the installation of radar systems and use of electronic surveillance uncovering Syria’s landscape, previous blind-spots would be lifted, preventing future Iranian drones from entering Israel undetected. Complementing these defensive features, the Syrian capital Damascus is now within artillery range of the foothills of the taken territory, which also allow for freer entry into Syria by Israeli agents.

Simultaneously, Israel has warned the new power in Damascus not to enter the demilitarized area of separation. Israel also claims it has no interest in meddling in internal Syrian affairs granted Israel is not threatened, and will limit itself to securing the buffer zone. To accompany the stick however, Israel is pursuing a carrot-like policy of “good neighborliness”, with Netanyahu referencing when Israel had set up field hospitals to treat Syrians injured during their civil war. Netanyahu directly addressed the diverse populace in Syria: Druze, Kurds, Christians, and Muslims, in saying that Israel extends a “hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria… who want to live in peace with Israel”, while making it clear that if the emerging Syrian government chooses another path then Israel would “do whatever it takes” to defend itself.

The high value of Mount Hermon, which remains internationally recognized Syrian territory, makes a willing withdrawal by Israel in the near future very unlikely, despite statements of a temporary measure. Perhaps most telling is when Katz said that Mount Hermon “had returned to Israeli control after 51 years”, implying the Mount originally belonged to Israel, perhaps referencing biblical times.

Until the end of 2025

Already in December 2024, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the IDF to prepare to remain on Mount Hermon until at least the end of 2025. With the fragile new Syrian government, uncertain security situation in the region, ongoing conflicts between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah, and with continuous threats from Iran, Israel is unlikely to be willing to give up Mount Hermon at all. The sheer strategic value of that peak is simply too high. And where in the past it has been fought over, the fall of the Assad-regime presented Israel with an opportunity too good to pass up – oversight over the entire region. And it is not just the security for Israel that Mount Hermon provides that is important, but also the historical and spiritual significance that resonates with Israel’s people who may very well feel that Mount Hermon is rightfully Israeli.

Image: Mount Hermon as seen from Mt. Bental (Source: Almog/Public Domain)