Golan Heights buffer zone takeover is temporary, says Israel
Israeli tanks crossed the security fence into the buffer zone with Syria yesterday
At his media conference in Jerusalem earlier, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar characterised the military takeover of the buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria as a "limited and temporary step" to secure Israel's security.
Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to
"take control" of the buffer zone. He said the disengagement agreement with Syria, which established the demilitarised area in 1974, had "collapsed" with the fall of the Assad regime.
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.
Pictures from the Golan Heights - a rocky plateau about 60km (40 miles) south-west of Damascus - showed Israeli troops crossing into the buffer zone yesterday.