Israeli actions on Syrian border breach 1974 ceasefire deal with 'severe violations', UN warns

Observers monitoring engineering groundwork by Israeli forces along several sections of the Alpha Line

Israeli forces digging along the Alpha Line separating the occupied Golan Heights from a demilitarised zone in Syria patrolled by UN forces. Photo: PBC

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UN peacekeepers on Tuesday warned the Israeli military has committed “severe violations” of a 1974 ceasefire deal with Syria as it carries out a substantial construction project along the Alpha Line, which separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory.

Construction work, which reportedly began in July, follows other major Israeli infrastructure projects, including new roadways and a buffer zone along the Gaza frontier. The Israeli military has also begun demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other UN peacekeepers have reportedly come under fire.

“Violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement have occurred where engineering works have encroached into the AoS [Area of Separation]. There have been several violations by [the Israeli military] in the form of their presence in the AoS because of these activities,” the UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) said in a statement.

Undof observed continuing “engineering groundwork activities” by Israeli forces building ditches along several sections of the Alpha Line.

Last month, UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen reported to the UN Security Council that the peacekeeping mission had seen an “Israeli battle tank and excavators cross the ceasefire line into the area of separation” in the demilitarised zone on the Israel-Syria border.

Syrian authorities have voiced “strong protests” over the construction, citing concerns over Israeli military equipment and personnel in the demilitarised zone, Undof noted.

Although violence has not erupted along the Alpha Line, Undof warned the Israeli actions “have the potential to increase tensions in the area and are being closely monitored”.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. In 1974, the UN Security Council established Undof to monitor a 400-square-kilometre demilitarised zone after another war in 1973.

Undof now has about 1,100 troops from Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Nepal and Uruguay patrolling the area. Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, a move condemned by a UN resolution as “null and void”, with no international legal validity.

In 2019, then-president Donald Trump declared US recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, a decision upheld by the subsequent Biden administration.