فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it has deployed its forces in the demilitarized zone of the Golan Heights, located in southwestern Syria, along the border with the part of the plateau occupied and annexed by Israel.
“In light of developments in Syria and based on (…) the possibility that armed groups may enter the buffer zone,” the army has deployed forces at “several key points necessary for defense to ensure the security of communities in the Golan Heights and Israeli citizens,” it stated in a release.
The army added that it would “not intervene” in the events occurring in Syria, where opposition groups led by radical Islamists announced on Sunday the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime after a rapid offensive launched on November 27 across Syria.
On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Syrian troops had withdrawn from their positions in Quneitra province, which borders the Golan Heights, where a demilitarized zone has been monitored by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) since 1974.
A spokesperson for the peacekeepers reported “unidentified armed individuals in the separation zone, including about twenty who entered one of the mission’s positions in the northern part of the separation area.”
The Israeli army announced that it had assisted UN forces in “repelling” an attack.
When asked by AFP on Sunday about reports from Lebanese media regarding an Israeli strike targeting a weapons depot in Quneitra province on the Golan Heights, an army spokesperson stated that there would be “no comment.”
Israel captured part of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War before annexing this territory in 1981. This annexation is not recognized by the United Nations.
In 2014, UNDOF had to abandon its positions in the Syrian part of the Golan when rebel groups and jihadists from Al-Qaeda’s former Syrian branch seized control of the area. These groups gradually took over several areas of Quneitra, including the crossing between the Syrian part of Golan and the part of the plateau occupied by Israel.
Forty-five Fijian peacekeepers from UNDOF were taken hostage after clashes between the army and rebels before being released after two weeks.
On Sunday, the Israeli army indicated that it had decided to switch classes in schools in four Druze localities in northern Golan Heights to online learning and declared some agricultural areas as military zones.
