According to Jin10, Syria's transitional government Foreign Ministry said on September 9 that it condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for illegally entering Syrian territory, openly violating Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity and threatening regional security and stability. Netanyahu said that Israeli forces had achieved "absolute control" over large areas of southern Syria from Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and said this did not mean Israel was "close to defeating Iran." Israeli Defense Minister Katz said on Mount Hermon that Israel would not withdraw from Syria. Israel occupied most of the Golan Heights during the Third Middle East War in 1967 and has repeatedly refused to return it to Syria. After Syria's political upheaval in December 2024, Israel also occupied the Golan Heights military buffer zone and Mount Hermon and has continued to launch strikes inside Syria.