The Northern District is one of Israel's six administrative districts. The Northern District has a land area of 3,324 km2, making it the second largest district in Israel. The district capital is Nof HaGalil and the largest city is Nazareth.
Buq'ata is a Druze town, administered as a local council, in the northern section of the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights. Buq'ata covers an area of 7,000 dunams (7 km²) between two mountains in the Golan Heights, Mount Hermonit and Mount Varda. Located 1,070 metres above sea level, it had a population of 6,805 in 2022.
Majdal Shams is a predominantly Druze town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, located in the southern foothills of Mount Hermon. It is known as the informal "capital" of the region.
Ghajar, also Rhadjar, is an Alawite-Arab village on the Hasbani River, on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights. The name of the village means "gypsy" in Arabic. As of 2022, it had a population of 2,806, most of whom consider themselves Syrian but have Israeli ID cards. The Blue Line divides Ghajar between Lebanon and the Golan Heights, although Israel has occupied the entire village since 2006. Israel considers it a part of its Northern District, in which its southern part is organized as a local council in the Golan Subdistrict.
Golan Regional Council is a regional council that supervises regional services to Israeli settlements located on the Golan Heights. It is made up of 18 moshavim, 10 kibbutzim, and 4 community settlements. The council headquarters is in the town of Katzrin. The current Head of Council is Haim Rokach.
Shouting Hill is a hill in the Golan Heights. The hill is located near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the area of the Golan that is occupied by Israel. During the Six-Day War, Israel captured most of the Golan Heights. Shouting Hill is located close to the Purple Line, a ceasefire line that separates Syrian and Israeli controlled territory.
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. Following the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives Israel occupied the remaining one third of the area.
Nimrod is a small Israeli settlement organized as a moshav, in the Golan Heights on the southern slopes of Mount Hermon, and is the highest such civilian settlement in Israeli-controlled territory at 1,110 meters (3,640 ft) above sea level. Located near the Israeli settlement of Neve Ativ and the Druze towns of Majdal Shams, Mas'ade, and Ein Qiniyye, it falls under the jurisdiction of Golan Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 16.
Arab localities in Israel include all population centers with a 50% or higher Arab population in Israel. East Jerusalem and Golan Heights are not internationally recognized parts of Israel proper but have been included in this list.
Mas'ade is a Druze village in the northern Golan Heights. It covers an area of 11,985 dunams, and in 2022 had a population of 3,869. It was given the status of a local council in 1982. Its inhabitants are mostly Syrian citizens and have permanent residency in Israel. Since the adoption of the 1981 Golan Heights Law, Mas'ade is under Israeli civil law and is incorporated into the Israeli system of local councils.
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".
Al-Marsad – Arab Human Rights Centre in Golan Heights is an independent, not-for-profit international human rights organization with no religious or political affiliation that operates in the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights region is internationally recognised as Syrian territory occupied by Israel, although Israel asserts it has a right to retain control over the area. The organisation was created in October 2003 and is run from Majdal Shams. It was the first human rights organisation founded in the Golan.
Israeli Druze or Druze Israelis are an ethnoreligious minority among the Arab citizens of Israel. They maintain Arabic language and culture as integral parts of their identity, and Arabic is their primary language. In 2019, there were 143,000 Druze people living within Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, comprising 1.6% of the total population of Israel. the majority of Israeli Druze are concentrated in northern Israel, especially in Galilee, Carmel and the Golan areas.
Katzrin is an Israeli settlement organized as a local council in the Golan Heights. Known as the "capital of the Golan", it is the second-largest locality there after Majdal Shams, and the largest Israeli settlement. In 2022 it had a population of 7,876. It is the seat of Golan Regional Council.
Ein Qiniyye or 'Ayn Qunya is a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied southern foothills of Mount Hermon, 750 meters above sea level. It was granted local council status in 1982. Its inhabitants are mostly Syrian citizens with permanent residency status in Israel. In 2022 it had a population of 2,190.
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 still under Syrian, rather than Israeli, control. 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.
The Majdal Shams attack, took place on 27 July 2024, when a rocket hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The resulting blast killed 12 Syrian children belonging to the Druze community and injured at least 42 others, with most of the victims being between the ages of 10 and 16.
The 1982 Golan Heights Druze general strike, also known as the Great Strike, was a 5-month general strike by members of the Druze community in the Golan Heights protesting the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights.
