The Shebaa Farms, also spelled Sheba'a Farms, is a small strip of land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The territory is named for the farms within it which were historically tended by the inhabitants of the Lebanese town of Shebaa. It is about 11 kilometres (7 mi) long and 2.5 kilometres (2 mi) wide.
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 6,752 in 2021.
Majdal Shams is a Druze town in the southern foothills of Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights, known as the informal "capital" of the Golan Heights. The majority of residents are Syrian Druze. Since the June 1967 Six-Day War, the village has been held by Israel as part of its military occupation of the Golan Heights, first under martial law, but since the adoption of the 1981 Golan Heights Law under Israeli civil law, and incorporated into the Israeli system of local councils.
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.
The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about 1,800 km2 (690 sq mi). The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between disciplines: as a geological and biogeographical region, the term refers to a basaltic plateau bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east. As a geopolitical region, it refers to the border region captured from Syria by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967; the territory has been occupied by the latter since then and was subject to a de facto Israeli annexation in 1981. This region includes the western two-thirds of the geological Golan Heights and the Israeli-occupied part of Mount Hermon.
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.
Neve Ativ, is an Israeli settlement in the Golan Heights, organized as a small Alpine-styled moshav. Located on the slopes of Mount Hermon, 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) west of Majdal Shams. it falls under the jurisdiction of Golan Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 141.
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.
Mas'ade is a Druze village in the northern Golan Heights. It covers an area of 11,985 dunams, and in 2021 had a population of 3,812. 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. A cease-fire line was established and large parts of the region came under Israeli military control, including the town of Quneitra, about 139 villages and 61 farms. Of these, the Census of Population 1967 conducted by the Israeli Defence Forces listed only eight, including Quneitra. One of the remaining populated villages, Shayta, was partially destroyed in 1967 and a military post built in its place. Between 1971–72 it was destroyed completely, with the remaining population forcibly transferred to Mas'ade, another of the populated villages under Israeli control.
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 by all but the US 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.
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.
The 2014 Quneitra offensive, code-named “The Real Promise” or "Chargers of Dawn", was a military operation launched by Syrian rebels during the Syrian civil war in Quneitra Governorate, in an attempt to take control of several sections in the central part of the province and around Quneitra city "with the aim of opening the way to Damascus."
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 2021 it had a population of 2,172.
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.
F.C. Bnei M.M.B.E. HaGolan VeHaGalil, also known as Bnei HaGolan VeHaGalil, or "Mamba", is an Israeli football club, playing in Liga Bet. The club was established in 2015 by Druze living in the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, in the villages of Mas'ade, Majdal Shams, Buq'ata and Ein Qiniyye, which initials are incorporated in the club's name.
The Quneitra offensive was launched by Syrian rebel forces, during the Syrian Civil War, in order to capture the government-held town of Hader, Quneitra Governorate.
The Golan Subdistrict is an area administered by Israel as a subdistrict of Northern District. The subdistrict encompasses the Israeli-occupied territories of Golan Heights, occupied from Syria during the Six-day war and annexed to Israel under the Golan Heights Law. Thus this region is internationally recognized to encompass Quneitra Governorate, which itself is composed of 2 districts and 5 subdistricts.
