The Lebanese militant group is grappling with a stunning reversal of fortune after its war with Israel and the ouster of its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad.

The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting. [Damascus] The Justice Ministry in Syria’s transitional government has referred 87 judges from the country’s now-defunct Terrorism Court to the Judicial Inspection Department for investigation into potential disciplinary and legal violations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not allow Syria’s new army or the insurgent group that led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad to “enter the area south of Damascus” as his government made clear Israeli forces would stay in parts of southern Syria for an indefinite period.

Netanyahu never would have considered extending Israel’s protection to the Syrian Druze. That he is doing so now underscores how much has changed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will maintain an indefinite military presence at the peak of Mount Hermon and in the buffer zone along the Syrian border.

Israel has already had a long history of passing on Russian weapons it captured off the numerous battlefields of the Middle East.

Netanyahu has demanded the ‘full demilitarisation’ of southern Syria, where Israel has illegally expanded its forces. ​​​ Tel Aviv, February 23 (RHC)-- Israel will not allow the new Syrian government’s military forces to operate in territory south of Syria’s capital Damascus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned.