Israel suspected of secretly supporting 12 rebel groups in Syria

Magazine investigative reportForeign PolicyIsrael has been quietly providing financial and weapons support to rebel fighters in southern Syria during the seven-year civil war in the Middle Eastern country, a report published on September 6 said.

In interviews, more than two dozen members of at least 12 rebel groups operating in the area between the Israeli and Syrian borders said they received shipments of weapons including rifles, machine guns, mortars, and personnel carriers from Israel through three border crossings in the Golan Heights, the same three crossings that Tel Aviv uses to transport aid to Syria.

Israel reportedly paid each rebel fighter $75 a month and funneled money to the groups to buy more weapons on the black market in Syria. The groups were told to fight to keep Islamic State (IS) and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants away from Israel’s borders.

When the Syrian army launched a major offensive in the south in July, the rebels hoped that Israel would intervene militarily to help them, a source said. However, Tel Aviv turned a blind eye and the rebels were eventually defeated, forced to lay down their arms and retreat to Idlib under a ceasefire deal with the Syrian army. Israel's support for the rebels ended last month.

“This is a lesson we will never forget about Israel. They don’t care about us, they don’t care about humanity, they only care about their own interests,” one rebel told Foreign Policy reporter Elizabeth Tsurkov.

Israel has not commented on this information. Tel Aviv is said to regularly conduct airstrikes deep into Syria to prevent Iranian-backed militias and provide support to rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but Israeli authorities have neither admitted nor denied the allegations.