The source confirmed that following the meeting between the three representatives and Yaalon, who was defense minister between March 2013 until May 2016, Israel began providing humanitarian aid to residents of the Syrian Golan Heights in an IDF operation known as Good Neighbor.
According to a report by Haaretz, Maj.-Gen. Gershon Hacohen, a former IDF General Staff Corps commander who retired in September 2014, said during a conference put on by Israel Democracy Institute that he was with Yaalon when the meeting took place. He did not say exactly when the meeting occurred. Hacohen was quoted as saying:
"When I was commanding a corps in the Golan and Bogie [Ya'alon] was defense minister, we sat with three Syrian activists from the other side, from Syria. They came and Bogie wanted to understand who they were. He asked one of them, 'Tell me, are you a Salafist?' And he said, 'I really don't know what a Salafist is. If it means that I pray more, then yes. Once I would pray once a week, on Fridays, now I pray five times a day. On the other hand, a Salafist isn't meant to cooperate with the Zionists. I'm sitting with the defense minister of the Zionists. So I don't know.' This means that identity components are very fluid. They don't tell you where the person is going."
Comment: Less likely Israel did humanitarian aid out of the goodness of its heart than seeking leverage to counter Iranian influence through the rebel faction and improve its public persona.