section_path: Aftermath/Israeli invasion
section_name: Israeli invasion
paragraph_text: Israeli invasion
  
  Israel Defence Forces (IDF) initiated military operations in Syria 's Quneitra Governorate. Armored units advanced into the buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria, targeting areas including Tel Ayouba in the central Quneitra countryside with artillery fire. The operation marked the first time in 50 years that Israeli forces crossed the Purple Line, following ceasefire agreements on 31 May 1974 in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.
  
  Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that since the Syrian Army had abandoned its positions, the 1974 border agreement with Syria had dissolved, and that to prevent any possible threat he had ordered the IDF to temporarily seize the buffer zone, from which the IDF had withdrawn in 1974, until an agreement was reached with the new government in Syria.
  
  Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria, targeting Khalkhala air base, the Mazzeh district of Damascus, and suspected chemical weapon storage sites. Israel claimed to have carried out these airstrikes to prevent the fall of weapons to Syrian rebel groups.