Within hours of the fall of the Assad regime, Israeli forces were already pushing into Syrian territory, conquering the Syrian side of Mount Hermon/Jabal A-Shaykh and the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that has been in place for more than half a century. But the army were not the only ones quick to react; so, too, was the Israeli settler movement.

“We have to conquer and destroy. As much as possible, and as quickly as possible,” wrote one member of Uri Tsafon — a group founded earlier this year to promote Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon — in the organization’s WhatsApp group. “We need to check according to the new laws in Syria whether Israelis are allowed to invest in real estate and start buying land there,” another member wrote. In another settler WhatsApp group, members shared maps of Syria and tried to identify potential areas for settlement.