WarSclerotic

Israel Defense Forces engineering units have been busy the past week bolstering security along the northern border with Syria in an attempt to prevent the possible entry of infiltrators and refugees as the fighting in Syria inches nearer to Israeli territory. Obstacles were placed along the border, security fences were reinforced and deep trenches were dug to ensure that no one enters the country illegally.

The deteriorating situation in Syria has become a mounting concern for Israel, which fears the unrest will spill over the border, and the long-quiet frontier area will become a new Islamist front against the Jewish state.

The IDF has been monitoring the situation on the Golan Heights for some time, due to a concern that terrorists affiliated with the global jihad movement may be among those who try to enter the country.

At this point, no increase in IDF troops on the Golan has been planned or implemented, but special units in the north have been trained for a swift response if regular units in the north require reinforcements within a short time. IDF units are also training to respond to mass marches by Syrians to the border, similar to past events on Nakba Day and Naksa Day, when Palestinians mark the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the capture of east Jerusalem in 1967, respectively.

Regular troops along the border are equipped with crowd dispersal equipment and non-lethal weapons, and are instructed to follow strict engagement guidelines to prevent infiltrations.

Meanwhile, the Jordan-based media outlet Ammon News reported that Jordanian troops exchanged gun fire with Syrian troops on Friday, after the latter shot dead a three-year-old Syrian boy while firing at his parents and a dozen other refugees as they tried to cross a Jordanian border fence.

Jordanian Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah said that the infant, Bilal El-Labloubi, died instantly of a bullet wound in his neck.

A border official said two people managed to sneak into Jordan, while about 10 others ran back into Syria under heavy Syrian gunfire.

It was not immediately clear if the two were the boy’s parents. According to Maaytah there was no cross border fire. The early Friday incident took place in Turra, a northern town near Ramtha on the Syrian border.

Following the incident, dozens of Jordanians reportedly staged a protest in front of the Syrian embassy located west of Amman, calling on the Jordanian government to expel the Syrian diplomatic mission from Jordan in response.

Jordan hosts more than 140,000 Syrian refugees.

Earlier in the week, three mortar shells fell in Syria several hundred meters away from the Israeli border, according to Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz. An Israeli couple from the area said explosions have kept them up at night.

Meir Elakry, an off-duty Israeli security guard who lives just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Syrian border, said he was afraid Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would become desperate and turn his guns on Israel. “I want to know what the danger is to my house,” said Elakry, clutching a pair of binoculars. “I don’t believe Assad will be quiet if he falls.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a news conference within earshot of the fighting last week, warning that the spiraling violence in Syria threatened to spill into the area.

On Tuesday, Gantz said the Syrian government remains in control of its chemical weapons arsenals, and militants do not appear to have raided them. Gantz warned that could change and counseled restraint over the possibility that Israel might decide to attack those depots to keep them out of militant hands, as Israeli leaders have recently threatened to do. Such a strike could drag Israel “into a broader offensive than planned,” he cautioned.

On Monday, Syria threatened to unleash its chemical and biological weapons if it faces a foreign attack – its first-ever acknowledgement it possesses weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, Syrian troops loyal to Assad are continuing their counter-attacks against opposition forces in Damascus and Aleppo. Opposition leaders reported on Thursday that at least 150 people were killed during clashes throughout the country, and according to Arab media most neighborhoods in Damascus have been “cleared” of rebels. Reports claimed the fighting was mainly focused now in the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood in which Free Syrian Army rebels still maintain a stronghold.

Opposition fighters in Aleppo, the second largest and most populous city in the country, are reportedly preparing for a major clash with government troops. More than half the city is under the control of the rebels and large numbers of Syrian infantry units have been deployed around the city backed up by tanks and armored vehicles.

Rebels who have been fighting for six days in Syria’s commercial capital of three million people are bracing themselves amid reports of artillery strikes and strafing by attack helicopters and fighter jets.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says the U.S. has “grave concerns” about tanks and fighter jets being used in a densely populated city. She says thousands of people are spilling out of Aleppo and calls the onslaught a “desperate” attempt by a government losing control of its country.

Nuland said “The concern is that we will see a massacre in Aleppo, and that’s what the regime appears to be lining up for.”