The Agreement on Disengagement [1] between Israel and Syria, which was signed on May 31, 1974, [2] officially ended the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent attrition period on the Syrian front. [3] Following the fall of the Assad regime, Israel "considered the agreement void until order is restored in Syria", [4] leading to the 2024 Israeli invasion of Syria. [5]
At cease of fire in the Yom Kippur War, Israel had gained control over the pre-war Golan Heights, as well as a substantial portion that Syria had controlled before the war. The newly conquered territory lay east of the northern Golan, along a roughly 20 kilometres (12 mi)-wide strip leading towards Damascus, ending only 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the city. The 400 square kilometres (150 sq mi) in that area contained many small Syrian villages as well as the volcanic cone and peak of Hermon mountain.
Even though the temporary ceasefire was made official, both sides kept exchanging fire, bringing the situation into attrition warfare. It continued throughout the negotiation process, and became more intense every time it was interrupted. Negotiations were repeatedly initiated by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 339, inasmuch as from its very start there were multiple disputes over procedure. Furthermore, the attrition grew more intense as the Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Egypt was finally signed in January 1974.
Israel demanded that a list of its captives held in Syria be released as a condition for re-opening the negotiations, and asked that they be allowed to receive medical treatment from the Red Cross if needed. Syria denied the request, demanding territorial compensation in exchange. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, came for a short shuttling journey between Jerusalem and Damascus in February 1974 (he later wrote in his memoirs that he had decided to mediate due to pressure from the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and ruler of Saudi Arabia, who wished to bring both the Yom Kippur War and the oil crisis to an end). On February 27, Kissinger returned from Damascus with a list of prisoners, following a promise given to the Syrians that Quneitra will be given back to them, and then began formal negotiations.
Attrition warfare greatly increased in the coming months, and between March and May there were over a thousand different incidents, including heavy bombings on cities in the Golan as well as constant fire at Israel Defense Forces, and battles over the control of Mount Hermon. Throughout this period, fears that the battles will become a full-scale war delayed the release of reserve units in months. Syrians demanded Israeli withdrawal from large territories in the Golan which they had lost. [6]
Eventually Israel agreed to withdraw from all the territories occupied during the war, consisting of approximately 25 square kilometres (9.7 sq mi) on the Israeli side of the Purple Line (1967 armistice line). In exchange, a 235 square kilometer (146 sq mi) United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone was formed on the Syrian side of that line. According to testimonies of the participants in the negotiations, there were bargainings about the smallest detail until the agreement was signed in Geneva on May 31, 1974 (more than seven months after the ceasefire declaration). The negotiations led to numerous misunderstandings and indirectly caused the crises of fire incidents, such as when Israel agreed to give back Syria the control over Quneitra, Syria interpreted it as if the area referred to included the Avital and Bental mountains, whilst Israel intended only to the area of the city itself. The negotiations went on with continued U.S. pressure on Israel.
It was decided in the agreement that the two countries will maintain the ceasefire and immediately return prisoners of war on both sides. Then, it said, Israel will withdraw from all the enclaved areas and the Hermon top it occupied during the war, and a surface of about 25 km2 around the city of Quneitra and other small areas occupied during the Six-Day War. Finally, two separation lines were put into place: Israeli (marked in blue) and Syrian (marked in red), [7] including a 235 km2 United Nations Disengagement Observer Force buffer zone on the Syrian side. [6]
The agreement stated that the Syrian civilians forced to leave their homes in the buffer zone will be able to return to them, as it pledged fight terrorist activities in the Golan Heights. These two undertakings were given as an oral commitment to the United States. Following the agreement was the establishment of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force buffer zone, which appointed 1,043 soldiers to oversee the buffer zone. [6]
Prisoners were returned immediately after the signing of the agreement (June 1–6, 1974), and Israel withdrew from Mount Hermon and the enclave areas. The new separation line was completed on June 26, 1974.
Unlike what many commentators [ who? ] had expected, the agreement on disengagement between Israel and Syria not only lasted for more than 45 years, but has been operative from the moment it was signed. This makes it the longest successful continuous agreement Israel has ever had with an Arab country to date.
After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the IDF captured outposts on the Syrian-controlled sector of Mount Hermon, which had been a part of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force buffer zone under the agreement. [8] According to Israeli Prime-Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Syrian army had abandoned its positions on the Golan Heights after the collapse of the Assad regime, which prompted Netanyahu to order the IDF to "temporarily" occupy the place in order "to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel," until adequate security arrangements could be made. [9]
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. Most of the fighting occurred in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, territories occupied by Israel in 1967. Some combat also took place in Egypt and northern Israel. Egypt aimed to secure a foothold on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and use it to negotiate the return of the Sinai Peninsula.
Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m (9,232 ft) above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, known as "Hermon Hotel", located at 2814 metres altitude (9,232 ft). The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located with a top elevation of 2,040 metres (6,690 ft). A peak located about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) south-southwest of Mount Hermon, known as Mitzpe Hashlagim, is the highest point in the entirety of Israel when including Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, at 2,236 m (7,336 ft).
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.
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.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 350, adopted on 31 May 1974, established the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Syria in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. UNDOF was initially established for a period of six months, but has had its mandate renewed by subsequent resolutions.
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 Ba'ath City.
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. 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.
The Quneitra Crossing is a border crossing through the purple ceasefire line into the UNDOF controlled area between the Syrian controlled and the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights. It is on the southwestern outskirts of Quneitra, and not far from the Israeli settlement of Ein Zivan in the Golan Heights. Syrian Druze from the Golan Heights are permitted to cross through the passage to study, work and live in Syria proper. The crossing is also used for the transfer of apples grown by Druze farmers under the auspices of the Red Cross. The only concrete guard post along the ceasefire line is at the Quneitra crossing.
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.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1934, adopted unanimously on June 30, 2010, after considering a report by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regarding the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the Council extended its mandate for a further six months until December 31, 2010.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1965, adopted unanimously on December 22, 2010, after considering a report by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regarding the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the Council extended its mandate for a further six months until June 30, 2011.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1994, adopted unanimously on 30 June 2011, after considering a report by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regarding the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the Council extended its mandate for a further six months until 31 December 2011.
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.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in March 2011, the official position of Israel has been that of strict neutrality. However, due to the Iranian intervention in the conflict, which began in 2013, it has become involved both politically and militarily in attempts to prevent the growing influence and entrenchment of Iranian troops and proxies throughout Syria. Dubbed Operation Chess, Israeli military activity in Syria has primarily been limited to aerial and missile strikes targeting facilities used by Iran and its proxy forces, especially Hezbollah, which entered Syria from Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of the conflict. Before 2017, Israel did not officially acknowledge any of its operations within Syria, many of which have consisted of airstrikes to disrupt weapons shipments to Hezbollah personnel. By August 2022, the British investigative non-profit organization Airwars estimated that 17 to 45 civilians were killed and another 42 to 101 civilians were wounded by Israeli airstrikes in Syria since 2013; Syrian reports place these figures much lower than other foreign actors in the conflict. Between 2013 and September 2018, Israel also provided humanitarian aid to victims of the Syrian civil war, especially following the launching of Operation Good Neighbour in June 2016.
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 of 1974. The region was conquered by the Israeli army (IDF) at the end of the Yom Kippur War in October of 1973, and held by Israeli forces until the signing of the disengagement agreement on May 31, 1974.
The spillover of the Israel–Hamas war in Syria is the impact and military engagements in Syria which are caused by the spillover of the Israel–Hamas 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 forces, Syrian state actors, and armed groups operating in Syrian territory.
On 8 December 2024, following the fall of the Assad regime, Israel's armored units entered the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) buffer zone in between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, targeting the central countryside of the Quneitra Governorate with artillery fire. The operation marked the first time in over 50 years that Israeli forces had occupied the area, following ceasefire agreements on 31 May 1974 in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.