IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot (front left) visits Israel’s border with Syria in the Golan Heights, Nov. 20, 2018. Photo: IDF Twitter account.

Israel will continue to act to thwart the transfer of advanced Iranian weaponry to Hezbollah, the IDF chief of staff said on Monday during a visit to his country’s border with Syria.

Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot — who was accompanied on the Golan Heights tour by GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick — also praised Israeli troops for their efforts to prevent the establishment of a permanent Iranian military presence across the border in southern Syria.

“The fact that their abilities are far from what Iran and terror groups desired is the result of high-quality, ongoing operational activity,” said Eizenkot, whose four-year term as chief of staff will come to a close at the end of December.

In recent years, the IDF is believed to have conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria on targets tied to Iran and its Lebanon-based, Shi’a proxy Hezbollah — both of which, along with Russia, have deployed forces in Israel’s northeastern neighbor to bolster the Assad regime.

Amid the ongoing international efforts to reach a diplomatic resolution to the seven-year-old civil war in Syria, Israel’s priority has remained the removal of Iran-linked entities from the country.