UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon scrambled Thursday night looking for troops to replace some 380 UN peacekeepers on the Golan Heights that Austria announced earlier in the day it was evacuating. Israeli diplomatic officials said Ban understood the implications to the future of peace keeping missions in the region if the force collapsed because of tension.
The Austrian decision came after battles between Syrian troops and rebels near the Quneitra crossing point. The 1,000 strong United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has been monitoring the border for the last 40 years.
Israel is keen on the force remaining on the border and trying to preserve the quiet that has reigned there for some 40 years. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that it "regrets" the Austrian decision and "hopes it will not lead to an additional escalation" in the region.
The statement said that Israel expected the UN to uphold its commitment under Security Council Resolution 350 to maintain UNDOF.
One diplomatic official said that Israel was watching the developments closely and that its faith in the international peace keeping troops hung in the balance. "If at a time when a few bullets are fired, these forces run away form where they are needed to keep the peace, then what is it worth," the official said.
The official praised Ban for taking the matter seriously.
International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz issued a statement expressing regret at the Austrian move, adding that the lesson for Israel was clear: "Even as part of peace agreements, Israel cannot place its security in the hands of international forces instead of relying on the presence of IDF soldiers." On Wednesday, even before this incident, Steinitz came out strongly against any international force as part of a future peace accord with the Palestinians.
A spokesman for Ban issued a statement saying that he was approaching UN member states "in an effort to identify urgently new contributors or additional contributions to UNDOF." He said that the continued presence of UNDOF to monitor the Israeli-Syrian Disengagement of Forces Agreement was "essential."
Ban "urges parties to strictly respect the disengagement agreement, to stop fighting in the area of separation and to refrain from any violation of the disengagement line." the statement read.
Anti-Assad rebels briefly seized Quneitra, the sole crossing between Israel and
Syria, on Thursday morning in the disengagement zone, sending UN staff scurrying to their shelters, before Syrian soldiers managed to push them back and reassert their control of the area.
The rebel attack appeared to be an attempt to regain some momentum after Assad's forces, backed up by well-trained Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, on Wednesday seized control of Qusair, a town on a vital supply route close to Lebanon.
The IDF on Thursday issued a formal complaint to the UN arguing that Syria violated the cease-fire between the two countries by moving tanks into the demilitarized zone next to the Quneitra border crossing. Ban condemned the fighting there.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and his deputy Michael Spindelegger, explaining their decision to withdraw their forces, said that freedom of movement in the area no longer exits. "The uncontrolled and immediate danger to Austrian soldiers has risen to an unacceptable level," they said. "This morning's developments show that a further delay (in pulling out soldiers) is no longer justifiable."
An escalation of the situation in the border area could heighten Israeli fears that the fighting in Syria could spread into Israel, or that the country will become a launching point for terror attacks against Israeli targets by extremists fighting Syrian President Basher Assad.
After the fighting, Israel confirmed that two wounded Syrians had been let into Israel for medical treatment, though the IDF did not state whether they were rebel or government fighters.
The head of the United Nations' peacekeeping operations Herve Ladsous confirmed there had been incidents on the Syrian-Israeli border, and added UNDOF had taken measures to ensure the safety of its personnel.
"We are doing everything we can to reduce risks. We have closed posts that were too exposed, reinforced our equipment and vehicles, and our activities are more static," he said.
In recent months Japanese and Croatian troops have left the blue-helmeted ranks of UNDOF, while the Philippines, the other main contributor, has said it might leave after several cases where Syrian rebels held its peacekeepers captive. India also has soldiers there.
Quneitra is significant since control over the crossing point is considered one of the more symbolic demonstrations of power exercised by the Damascus government.
Israeli military sources told Army Radio in recent weeks that a takeover of the Quneitra crossing by rebels would constitute a major turning point in Jerusalem’s attitude toward the Syrian civil war.
Earlier on Thursday, a mortar shell landed at a United Nations base in Quneitra, just a few hundred meters from the border fence separating Israel and Syria.
In addition, Israel Radio reported that authorities have banned civilians from entering Kibbutz Ein Zivan, situated just hundreds of meters away from the border fence..
According to news reports, the military has also sealed off the section of Route 98 which extends from Aloni Habashan to Kibbutz Ein Zivan.
Pro-government troops have won a string of successes in recent weeks in Syria, boosting Assad at a time when the United States and Russia are
struggling to organize a peace conference aimed at ending the civil war, which has killed more than 80,000.
France, which earlier this week accused Assad of deploying nerve gas in the civil war, said on Wednesday the situation on the ground needed to be "rebalanced" after the fall of Qusair, but did not say how that could be achieved.
Russia said on Thursday it was worried that allegations of gas attacks might be used as a pretext for foreign intervention.
With sectarian divisions widening in the region, the leader of Sunni Islamist group al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, urged Syrians to unite against Assad and thwart what he called US plans to set up a client state to safeguard Israel's security.
Washington and its allies who have backed the rebels have become alarmed in recent months by the rise of an increasingly powerful rebel group that pledged its loyalty to al-Qaida.
Western countries have so far shown little appetite for getting sucked into the Syrian conflict, but there is also a clear aversion to letting Assad, heavily backed by Shi'ite Iran and their Hezbollah associates, emerge victorious.