Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet in 2018 on the Golan Heights border with Syria (photo Kobi Gideon GPO)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is constructing new military fortifications within Syrian territory, to the east of the international armistice line along the border with the Golan Heights. AP reported that satellite imagery shows work is being done in the area; however, the Israeli military declined to comment when asked about it.
This comes after the IDF, in recent months, launched attacks on suspected Iranian bases in Syria, including facilities that were said to be producing munitions for the use of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon.
Last month the Israeli military began a ground offensive against Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon.
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The satellite photos are said to show construction of a new road along what is called the Alpha Line. The work began in September.
The United Nations confirmed that Israeli forces are operating within the area’s demilitarized zone. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) criticized Israel over the construction.
“In recent months, UNDOF has observed construction activity being carried out by the IDF along the cease-fire line,” U.N. peacekeeping spokesperson Nick Birnback told the AP, using an acronym for the Israeli military. “In this regard, UNDOF has observed in some instances, IDF personnel, Israeli excavators, other construction equipment and the construction itself encroach into the area of separation.”
Syria has officially been in a state of war with Israel since the founding of the Jewish State in 1948. Israel captured the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six Day War.
According to the Israeli government, the area of the Golan Heights held by Israel is around 1,200 sq. km. (500 sq. mi.). There are over 40,000 people living there, less than half of them Jewish and the rest Druze and a small Alawite minority.
The region’s strategic importance derives from its location, overlooking the Israeli Galilee region, and from the fact that it supplies Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) – a major source of water for Israel – with one third of its water.
As an outcome of the Syrian attack on Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel gained control of the Golan Heights. The Israeli-Syrian Agreement on Disengagement of 1974 established a buffer zone between them and a United Nations Observer Force to supervise its implementation. Israeli law was applied by the Knesset to the Golan Heights on 14 December 1981.
