Back in November, prior to Al-Assad’s fall, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar stated that the Israeli government should reach out to Syria’s Kurdish groups and other regional minorities as they are “natural” allies. Remarking that Kurds are “a victim of oppression and aggression from Iran and Turkiye”, he called for stronger Israeli ties with them and admitted that such a goal has both “political and security aspects”.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan, from the Democratic party, also stressed on X: “Israel must be concerned about one basic thing: a Turkish attack against the Kurds in Syria… Israel must take the initiative and take advantage of overt and covert channels to support the Kurds. A strong Kurdish territory is security for Israel.”

In turn, according to Israel’s state channel KAN, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria has even asked the Israeli government for assistance to keep their power base in the northeast of the country in the potential event of a US military withdrawal. Israeli and Kurdish militant officials reportedly established a “communication channel” in the weeks following the collapse of Assad.

Such communications have not gone unnoticed, of course, and have reportedly caused a senior official from Iraq’s Kurdistan region to warn Tel Aviv that its public support for the Syrian Kurds only harms their affairs and serves the interests of “extremist parties” and Iran. That official notably told the Israelis that the open support exposes the Kurds to the risk of losing their regional status and standing as it would portray them as collaborators with Israel and its occupation.

This year and coming years will likely witness Israeli provision of military support for the Kurdish militants in Syria, either covertly or through the avenue of support from the US and other Western nations. Tel Aviv may deem it useful, for example, to provide intelligence, military training or even advanced technology to those Kurdish forces, which could include drones, surveillance systems or greater cyber capabilities.