The border has been jittery since Sept. 6, the date of a mysterious raid by Israeli jets on a target in Syria's north.
Next week's military maneuver was scheduled to be held partially on the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War.
Israel sent messages reassuring Syria that the exercise signaled no aggressive intentions, the officials said. But this week, the military decided to hold the exercise solely in northern Israel and not on the Golan Heights because of concerns it might unsettle the Syrians and cause a deterioration along the border, they said.
The officials spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge details of the military's decision to the media.
The exercise is slated to be the largest Israeli military maneuver since Israel's 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon last summer.
Israel's military regularly holds exercises on the strategic heights, but it seems Israel is being especially cautious not to provoke Syria in the aftermath of the Sept. 6 raid, which is still enveloped in secrecy. Israel still has not officially commented on the raid or acknowledged carrying it out.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said the attack targeted an unused military building. But reports following the incident have contradicted that account.
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that the strike had targeted a partially built nuclear reactor, made with North Korean help, that was years away from completion, citing U.S. and foreign officials. The Washington Post also cited U.S. officials as saying the building had characteristics of a small but substantial nuclear reactor similar to North Korea's facility.
New commercial satellite images show a presumed Syrian nuclear reactor site has been wiped clean since the apparent airstrike.
An image taken Wednesday by a DigitalGlobe commercial satellite shows tractors or bulldozers and scrape marks on the ground where the building stood in photos taken prior to Sept. 6.
It also shows what appears to be a trench where Syria might have dug up buried pipelines running from a water pumping station to the suspected reactor building.
Analysts said the cleanup will hinder a proposed investigation by international nuclear inspectors and suggests Syria is trying to conceal evidence.
"It took down this facility so quickly it looks like they are trying to hide something," said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which analyzed the images.
Albright said Syria may have acted so swiftly because the Israeli attack blew a hole in the roof, which would have exposed the building's contents to spy aircraft and satellites.
Had the building not been razed, inspectors would have been able to tell from its construction whether it was meant to house a North Korean-style nuclear reactor, Albright said. He said the fact that the structure got a roof so early in its construction also suggests that it was a reactor.
Syria has strenuously denied the target was a nuclear reactor.
The border between Israel and Syria has been tense since that incident.
Last month, Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to the northern Golan Heights because of suspicious aerial activity that later turned out to be migrating birds. A few days later, Israel dispatched several fighter jets toward Syria after a Syrian aircraft disappeared from Israeli air force radar screens. The jets returned to their bases minutes later when it became clear the Syrian airplane had crashed.
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Associated Press Writer Pamela Hess in Washington contributed to this report.
