United Nations peacekeepers warned on Tuesday that the Israeli military has committed “severe violations” of a ceasefire deal with Syria as its military continues a major construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
The comments from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof), which has patrolled the area since 1974, come after an Associated Press report on Monday published satellite imagery showing the extent of the works along the frontier.
The work, which Undof said began in July, follows the completion by the Israeli military of new roadways and what appears to be a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s frontier with Israel.
The Israel military also has begun demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other UN peacekeepers have come under fire.
While such violence has not broken out along the Alpha Line, Undof warned on Tuesday that the work risks further inflaming tensions in the region.
“Such severe violations of the (demilitarised zone) have the potential to increase tensions in the area and is being closely monitored by by Undof,” it added.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Syrian officials have declined to comment on the construction.
A satellite image showing Israeli work along the Alpha Line separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from a demilitarised zone in Syria patrolled by UN forces (Planet Labs PBC/AP)
Israel seized control of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
The UN Security Council voted to create Undof to patrol a roughly 155 square miles (400 sq km) demilitarised zone and maintain the peace there after the 1973 Middle East war.
A second demarcation, known as the Bravo Line, marks the limit of where the Syrian military can operate.
Undof has around 1,100 troops, mostly from Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Nepal and Uruguay, who patrol the area.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 = a move criticised by a UN resolution declaring Israel’s action as “null and void and without international legal effect”.
The territory, some 460 square miles (1,200 sq km) in size, is a strategic high ground that overlooks both Israel and Syria.
Around 50,000 Jewish settlers and Arabs who are mostly members of the Druze sect of Shiite Islam live there.
In 2019, then-president Donald Trump unilaterally announced that the United States would “fully recognise” Israel’s control of the territory, a decision that has been unchanged by the Biden administration. However, it is the only other country to do so, because the rest of the world views it as occupied Syrian territory.