Syria live updates: Blinken says US made direct contact with rebel group HTS

Israeli troops will remain in Syria slightly beyond a buffer zone -- created by the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement -- for "strategic reasons," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement Thursday.

"The collapse of the Syrian regime created a vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone established by the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement. Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7th style attacks," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

"That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border. This deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed," the statement said.

The U.S. believes an individual seen in a video circulating online could be Travis Pete Timmerman, an American who went missing from Hungary earlier in the year, two officials familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Officials said they were seeking to provide support to the person, who was featured in a video published to social media on Thursday. The man does not speak in the short video and is seen lying on a mattress on the floor.

Timmerman, 29, has been missing since June 2, 2024, the date of his last contact, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol.

It wasn't immediately clear when and where the circulating video was taken, but the person speaking in Arabic to the camera identifies the man as an American, according to a translation. The speaker was identified as a Syrian local.

-ABC News' Shannon K. Kingston

The Political Affairs Department in Liberated Areas -- which is part of the rebel-run transitional authorities -- posted a statement on X on Thursday thanking nations for re-opening diplomatic missions in Damascus.

The statement expressed "thanks and gratitude" to Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and Italy for re-opening their missions in the Syrian capital.

Turkey and Qatar, the department said, had given assurances that their missions will also re-open in the near future.

"The Syrian people will not forget" the steps taken, the department said. "We are hopeful of building good relations with all countries that respect the will of the people, the sovereignty of the Syrian state and the unity of its territories."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a Wednesday post to X that the body supports "a smooth transition of power in Syria, with an inclusive political process in which the rights of all minorities will be fully respected."

Ongoing talks should pave "the way towards a united country with its territorial integrity fully reestablished," Guterres added.

"I fully trust the Syrian people to be able to choose their own destiny," he added, noting that special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen "is engaging all key actors to contribute to these objectives."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller