
Israel has learned that the Syrian military was preparing massive weapons  caches near the border with Israel. 
Officials said the Israeli  military has detected Syrian deployment of heavy weapons near the southern  border with the Jewish state. They said the Syrian Army was using civilian  assets to conceal the rearmament operation.
"They are using civilian trucks  to bring weapons near the border," Ground Forces Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi  Mizrachi said.
In an address to a military conference on Sept. 2,  Mizrachi said the Syrian Army was storing massive amounts of weapons in villages  near the Israeli border. He said unmarked trucks were transporting a range of  weapons to villages in the Golan Heights. 
"This is why we need to split  up our capabilities between a conventional war scenario to one that we are  fighting against a non-conventional force," Mizrachi said.
Over the last  year, Israeli military sources have reported Syrian deployment of troops and  heavy weapons in southern Syria near the Israeli border. The sources said Syrian  troops, disguised as civilian police, have established positions in dozens of  villages as part of an effort to prepare for a future war with  Israel.
"The Syrians have learned from [the Iranian-sponsored] Hizbullah  on how to use a civilian shield," a senior officer said. "We expect Syria to do  the same thing in any next war."
On Sept. 9, the Israel Army's Northern  Command held a major exercise along the border of Lebanon and Syria that  combined air, ground and naval forces. Officials said the exercise sought to  determine interoperability amid a range of attack scenarios.
In his  address to the Latrun Conference on Maneuver in Complex Terrain, co-sponsored by  the U.S. Joint Forces Command, Mizrachi, appointed the next head of Central  Command, said Israel faced a more dangerous adversaries, particularly Syria. He  said the next war would require massive numbers of ground forces.
"A war  cannot be won without moving forces on the ground," Mizrachi said. "Even today  there are people who believe that it is sufficient to threaten to use the forces  but in the Middle East this is not enough. Only a ground maneuver will end the  conflict and win the war."