Israel’s defense minister has told his troops to prepare to spend the winter holding the demilitarized zone that separates Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the summit of Mount Haramun in the U.N.-designated buffer zone. Netanyahu said this week the Golan Heights would “forever be an inseparable part of the State of Israel.”

On Thursday, the U.N. called for an urgent deescalation of airstrikes on Syria by Israeli forces, and their withdrawal from the U.N. buffer zone.

Stéphane Dujarric: “The secretary-general is deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The secretary-general is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria, stressing the need, the urgent need, to deescalate violence on all fronts throughout the country.”

In Ankara, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Turkey’s foreign minister and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Blinken said the U.S. and Turkey would work to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group in Syria. Meanwhile, Erdoğan told Blinken Turkey reserves the right to strike the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. After headlines, we’ll go to Damascus for the latest on Syria.