Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced its military has temporarily seized control of a demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, saying the 50-year-old 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria had ‘collapsed’ with the rebel takeover of the country.
Netanyahu said he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to enter the buffer zone and “commanding positions nearby” from the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan, reports BBC.
“We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” he said.
A UK-based war monitor said Syrian troops had left their positions in Quneitra province, part of which lies inside the buffer zone, on Saturday.
On Sunday, the IDF told residents of five Syrian villages inside the zone to stay in their homes until further notice.
The Golan Heights is a rocky plateau about 60km (40 miles) south-west of Damascus.
Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. The move was not recognised internationally, although the US did so unilaterally in 2019.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
