Defence minister orders Israeli troops to prepare to spend winter on Mount Hermon

JERUSALEM - Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered Israeli troops to prepare to stay over the winter on Mount Hermon, a strategic location overlooking Damascus, adding to signs that Israel's presence in Syria is set to continue for a prolonged period.

"Due to what is happening in Syria - there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon," a statement from Katz's office said on Friday.

The order suggests that Israeli troops who moved into a buffer zone inside Syrian territory as well as a "few additional points" following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's government are likely to remain.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the troops would remain until there was an effective force in place to enforce the Separation of Forces Agreement signed following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel has called the move a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of its borders but it is unclear when it will judge the situation in Syria stable enough to pull its forces back.

Katz said the severe winter weather on Mount Hermon, a peak of 2,800 metres (9,186 feet) that straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon, made special preparations for a prolonged stay by Israeli troops a necessity.

A number of countries, including France and the United Arab Emirates, have condemned Israel's incursion, calling it a breach of the agreement that followed the Arab-Israeli war. But the United States has offered its support, saying the move was necessary for Israel's self-defence.

As well as moving troops into the buffer zone, Israel has also destroyed the bulk of the Syrian military's arsenal of weapons and ammunition in hundreds of air and naval strikes this week, a move it said was aimed at preventing the equipment falling into the hand of hostile forces.

While Israel welcomed the removal of Assad, an ally of its arch enemy Iran, it remains suspicious of the rebel groups that toppled him, many of which have origins linked to Islamist groups including Al Qaeda,

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones)