Israel has been offering residents of southern Syria near the border the opportunity to work in Israel while tempting them with attractive wages, the Saudi news network Al-Arabiya reported Monday.

According to the report, which cited local sources, Israel Defense Forces personnel have put the proposal to people living in towns and villages in the buffer zone that the military took over as a defensive measure following the fall of the Assad regime in December last year.

The Syrians would be permitted to enter Israeli territory for work on the Golan Heights, and then return to Syria at the end of the day. The scheme was said to be modeled on one previously used for Gazans who would cross daily into Israel for work before the war started on October 7, 2023, by the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel. At the end of 2022, some 17,000 Gazans had permits to work in Israel.

Sources told Al-Arabiya that the IDF informed Syrians they could earn $75-$100 a day working in Israel, a robust wage in Syria where there are dire economic hardships.

According to the report, at the end of last week, the IDF did a population count of communities in the border territory it is holding.

Israel has begun staff work on a pilot program for the scheme, the Kan public broadcaster reported Monday.

The program was initiated by Golan Druze who asked Israeli security officials and the military to assist their Druze brethren over the border, Kan said.

It is being drawn up by Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and is Druze.

The initial stage would see dozens of Syrian Druze working in construction and agriculture in Golan Druze towns.

Israeli leaders have publicly warned Syria’s government not to harm the Druze in southwestern Syria, and have regularly spoken with foreign leaders about the importance of protecting them, along with Syria’s Kurds.

The IDF described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that troops will remain deployed to nine army posts in the area “indefinitely.”

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops will stay on the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon and the buffer zone in the Golan Heights for “an unlimited period of time.”

“We will not allow [jihadist] forces or the new Syrian army to move into territory south of Damascus,” he said.

“We demand full demilitarization of southern Syria from troops of the new Syrian regime in the Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda provinces,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel will not accept any threats to Druze in southern Syria.

Israel conquered most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, ahead of which several Arab armies had planned an invasion of Israel. Jerusalem annexed the area in 1981, in a move only recognized by the United States. The UN-patrolled buffer zone was intended to keep Israeli and Syrian forces apart.

Forces loyal to Assad’s government had abandoned their positions in southern Syria before rebel groups even reached Damascus, leading Netanyahu to say there was a “vacuum on Israel’s border.”

The United Nations considers Israel’s takeover of the buffer zone a violation of the 1974 disengagement accord. Israel says the accord had fallen apart since one of the sides was no longer in a position to implement it.

Agencies contributed to this report.