Al Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria are scouting and filming IDF patrols along Israel’s border with Syria, according to a boastful video uploaded by the jihadists:

Members of the al-Furqan group — affiliated with the global al-Qaeda organization which has acted in Yemen and Iraq — were filmed close to Israel’s border, out in the open, in footage screened by Israel’s Channel 10 on Tuesday night. In a number of videos uploaded to the internet, the fighters can also be seen holding various munitions, including old anti-tank rockets and heavy machine guns.

As the camera pans toward Israel, an Israeli army Humvee drives by and an al-Qaeda fighter standing only a few meters from the border fence is heard saying “this is the border between Syria and Israel. There is an Israeli vehicle. The Free Army is a distance of only a few meters from the border.” An Israeli media report on the story concludes that forty years of quiet in the area have ended. In the segment Channel 10 reporter Or Heller comments [translation]:

For now, it is clear that they are concentrating on capturing all of the villages along the length of the border strip with Israel. As we see in the pictures they are only meters from the border and are following the movements of IDF patrols… The IDF assessment is that we are talking about at least a year until they finish gaining control over all of Syria, and then they might start up with us. We hear more and more voices in the defense establishment saying we have to find the moderate officials among the rebels – those who are more aligned to the West – and try to speak with them on some kind of game rules in the Golan Heights that won’t turn the Syrian border area into a penetrated border, a place where there will be terror attacks and rockets (fired) on the population (of Israel). This is something that Israel definitely does not want.

The increasingly Islamist forces battling to overthrow the regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad have repeatedly announced their intention to eventually wage war against the Jewish State. The uploaded video and the report come in the wake of multiple incidents of mortar fire from Syria into Israeli communities in the central and southern Golan Heights.

The video shows one of the markers on the Golan Heights indicating the “Alpha” line that designates the Israeli side of the demilitarized zone. The Syrian border is marked by the so-called “Bravo” line, and in between is an Area of Separation, part of the zone supervised by peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). UNDOF is slowly collapsing due to the fighting. Japan has already decided to remove their soldiers, and Croatia has announced it is pulling out later this year.