Quneitra is the largely destroyed and abandoned capital of the Quneitra Governorate in south-western Syria. It is situated in a high valley in the Golan Heights at 1,010 metres (3,313 feet) above sea level. Since 1974, pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 350 and the Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria, the city is inside the UN-patrolled buffer zone.
The Purple Line was the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria after the 1967 Six-Day War which serves as the de facto border between the two countries. In 2024 following the fall of Ba'athist Syria, Israel broke the Purple Line during its invasion of Syria.
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission tasked with maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The mission was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 350 on 31 May 1974, to implement Resolution 338 (1973) which called for an immediate ceasefire and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.
Quneitra Governorate is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in southern Syria, notable for the location of the Golan Heights. The governorate borders the countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, and the Syrian governorates of Daraa and Rif Dimashq. Its area varies, according to different sources, from 685 km2 to 1,861 km2. The governorate had a population of 87,000 at the 2010 estimate. The nominal capital is the now abandoned city of Quneitra, destroyed by Israel before their withdrawal in June 1974 in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War; since 1986, the de facto capital is Madinat al-Salam.
The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east. It hosts vital water sources that feed the Hasbani River and the Jordan River. Two thirds of the area was occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and then effectively annexed in 1981 – an action unrecognized by the international community, which continues to consider it Israeli-occupied Syrian territory. In 2024 Israel occupied the remaining one third of the area.
Beer Ajam is a Syrian Circassian village in the Quneitra Governorate in the Syrian controlled portion of the Golan Heights. It has been inhabited for about 150 years. Its first houses were built in 1872. Nearby localities include Quneitra to the north, Naba al-Sakhr to the northeast, al-Harra to the east, Namer to the southeast and Bariqa to the south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Beer Ajam had a population of 353 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants are Circassians from the Abadzekh and Kebertei tribes.
Israel–Syria relations refer to the bilateral ties between the State of Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic. The two countries have been locked in a perpetual war since the establishment of Israel in 1948, with their most significant and direct armed engagements being in the First Arab–Israeli War in 1948–1949, the Third Arab–Israeli War in 1967, and the Fourth Arab–Israeli War in 1973. Additionally, Israeli and Syrian forces also saw relatively extensive combat against each other during the Lebanese Civil War, the 1982 Lebanon War, as well as the War of Attrition. Both states have at times signed and held armistice agreements, although all efforts to achieve complete peace have been without success. Syria has never recognized Israel as a legitimate state and does not accept Israeli passports as legally valid for entry into Syrian territory; Israel likewise regards Syria as a hostile state and generally prohibits its citizens from travelling there, with some exceptions and special accommodations being made by both countries for Druze people residing in Syria and the Golan Heights. Israel and Syria have never established formal diplomatic relations since the inception of both countries in the mid-20th century.
Before the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War, the Golan Heights comprised 312 inhabited areas, including 2 towns, 163 villages, and 108 farms. In 1966, the Syrian population of the Golan Heights was estimated at 147,613. Israel seized about 70% of the Golan Heights in the closing stages of the Six-Day War. Many of these residents fled during the fighting, or were driven out by the Israeli army, and some were evacuated by the Syrian army. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 1992 characterized Israel's actions as "ethnic cleansing".
The 2012–2014 Quneitra Governorate clashes began in early November 2012, when the Syrian Army began engaging with rebels in several towns and villages of the Quneitra Governorate. The clashes quickly intensified and spilled into the UN-supervised neutral demilitarized zone between Syrian controlled territory and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Several incidents have taken place on the Israeli–Syrian ceasefire line during the Syrian Civil War, straining the relations between the countries. The incidents are considered a spillover of the Quneitra Governorate clashes since 2012 and later incidents between Syrian Army and the rebels, ongoing on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan and the Golan Neutral Zone and the Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian Civil War. Through the incidents, which began in late 2012, as of mid-2014, one Israeli civilian was killed and at least 4 soldiers wounded; on the Syrian-controlled side, it is estimated that at least ten soldiers were killed, as well as two unidentified militants, who were identified near Ein Zivan on Golan Heights.
Israel intervened in the Syrian civil war since it began in March 2011. Israeli airstrikes targeted Iranian and Hezbollah forces. After the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024 Israel invaded Syria.
Hader is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Khan Arnabah Subdistrict of the Quneitra Governorate. It is in the portion of the governorate that is under de jure Syrian control, although it is currently occupied by the Israeli Defence Forces as a result of Operation Bashan Arrow. The town is located just outside the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone. Nearby localities include Beit Jinn to the northeast, Harfa to the east, Jubata al-Khashab to the south, Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west and Shebaa in Lebanon to the northwest.
Al-Rafid is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Quneitra Governorate, in the portion of the province under the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Rafid had a population of 2,263 in the 2004 census.
The Quneitra offensive , code-named "Road to Damascus", was a military operation launched by rebel forces against the Syrian Arab Army at the town of Madinat al-Baath, in the Quneitra Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War.
The Golan Heights are a rocky plateau in the Levant region of Western Asia that was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community, with the exception of Israel and the United States, considers the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held by Israel under military occupation. Following the war, Syria dismissed any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution.
The Bashan Salient was a territory in Southwestern Syria which was conquered by the Israeli Army during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The salient was about twenty kilometres wide and encompassed an area of approximately 400 km2, extending to a point 33 kilometres from the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Salient was evacuated by the Israeli army shortly after the signing of a disengagement agreement between the Israeli and Syrian forces on May 31, 1974. The Salient included the summit of Mount Hermon, the town of Beit Jinn, and many other Syrian villages.
The War of Attrition in the Bashan Salient was an armed conflict between Israel and Syria in the Bashan Salient from March through May 1974. The region was conquered by the Israeli army (IDF) at the end of the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, and held by Israeli forces until the signing of the disengagement agreement on May 31, 1974, that saw the evacuation of all Israeli forces and the Bashan Salient returned to Syria.
The spillover of the Gaza war in Syria is the impact and military engagements in Syria which are caused by the spillover of the Gaza war, and constitute a part of the ongoing Middle Eastern crisis. The conflict, originating in the Gaza Strip, has triggered regional tensions and violence, drawing Syria in through direct and indirect confrontations involving Israeli defense forces, Syrian state actors, and armed groups operating in Syrian territory.
On 8 December 2024, Israel invaded the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and carried out an aerial campaign targeting the Syrian Army's military capabilities, following the fall of the Assad regime.
Samadanieh al-Sharqiyeh is a village in the Quneitra Governorate of southern Syria. It is south of the towns of Khan Arnabah and Madinat al-Baath, and near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
