BBC News reports: The deepening crisis in Syria threatens to have a destabilising effect on all of its neighbours but Israel has a particular set of concerns.

Technically, the two countries have been in a state of war since 1948. Israel also continues to occupy the Golan Heights, Syrian territory which it captured in 1967 and later annexed, in a move that is not internationally recognised.

Yet under President Bashar al-Assad, there has been a long-standing truce and for the past 40 years the border between the two countries has been relatively calm.

Now Israeli leaders are revising their strategic assessments. There are worries that fleeing Syrian refugees could try to enter the Golan Heights and that Mr Assad’s missiles and chemical weapons arsenal could fall into the wrong hands. [Continue reading…]

The Jerusalem Post reports that the IDF today shot an unarmed Syrian man who was attempting to cross the border into Israel.