Golan Heights

How did Israel take the Golan Heights?

Before 1967 Syria held the heights. Israel says Syrian guns on the heights shelled Israeli farms below. Syria says Israel provoked clashes in demilitarized zones along the border. Moshe Dayan, Israel's defense minister in 1967, said in a 1976 interview published in 1997 that Israel had provoked most of them. On June 9-10, 1967, the last days of the Six-Day War, Israel captured the Golan. Somewhere between about 90,000 and 130,000 Syrians, depending on the source, fled or were expelled.

In October 1973 Syria briefly retook much of the Golan before Israel pushed it back. The Disengagement Agreement of May 31, 1974 created the UN buffer zone. Israel withdrew from the town of Quneitra. Syria has kept Quneitra in ruins as a memorial. Syria says Israel deliberately destroyed it before leaving. Israel disputes that the destruction was deliberate.

On December 14, 1981, Israel's parliament applied Israeli law to the Golan. UN Security Council Resolution 497 called this "null and void and without international legal effect."

Why does the Golan matter to Israel and Syria?

Israel says the heights give an army a view deep into northern Israel and the ability to fire on it. Mount Hermon, the highest ground, carries Israeli early-warning posts. Israel Katz called its peak "the eyes of the state of Israel." Rain and streams from the Golan drain into the upper Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee, once Israel's main natural water source. Since Israel built desalination plants, the lake supplies only about 10% of its water.

Syria says the Golan is Syrian land taken by force. The Syrians who fled in 1967 and their descendants have never been allowed to return. At the UN on September 23, 2026, Syria's president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said "Golan will remain Syrian territory." At an Atlantic Council event in New York the day before, al-Sharaa recalled telling President Trump that he should give Israel New Jersey instead, since New Jersey, unlike the Golan, was his to give. The audience laughed.

What has Israel done in Syria since Assad fell?

Israel's military says it carried out about 480 strikes in the 48 hours after December 8, 2024, on the old Syrian army's weapons. Its troops took the buffer zone and posts beyond it. In July 2025 fighting broke out in Sweida province between Druze militias and Bedouin fighters in the Druze-majority province. Government troops sent in on July 14 then clashed with the Druze militias. Israel struck government forces and, on July 16, 2025, hit the defense ministry in Damascus, saying it was protecting the Druze. A US-brokered ceasefire took hold on July 20.

In Paris on January 5-6, 2026, the United States, Israel and Syria set up a joint mechanism to avoid clashes, short of a security pact. Al-Sharaa said about 90% of a deal was agreed. Talks broke down after Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur air base on August 18, 2026. Israel said Syria had agreed to a Turkish deployment there. Syria and Turkey denied this.

In September 2026 the UN human rights office counted about 280 incidents by Israeli forces in southern Syria, including raids and detentions. That was the most in any month that year.

Who lives in the Golan Heights?

Five Druze villages stayed after 1967. One, Sahita, was later razed, which left four: Majdal Shams, Mas'ade, Buq'ata and Ein Qiniyye. For decades most Golan Druze kept their Syrian identity and refused Israeli citizenship. Families split by the 1967 line used megaphones to call to relatives across the valley from a slope near Majdal Shams known as the Shouting Hill, until mobile phones made it rare. Attitudes to Israeli citizenship have changed since Assad fell and since Israel struck Syrian government forces in Sweida in July 2025, saying it was protecting the Druze. By Haaretz's count in August 2026, about 44% of Golan Druze hold Israeli citizenship, up from about a fifth in 2023. On July 27, 2024 a rocket hit a football field in Majdal Shams and killed 12 children and teenagers. Israel and the United States blamed Hezbollah, which denied it.

Israeli settlers live in Katzrin and about 33 settlements. In April 2026 Israel approved a five-year plan of about 1 billion shekels to bring 3,000 new families and make Katzrin a city. The Golan is known in Israel for its wineries. The Hermon ski site closed for 16 months during the war with Hezbollah and reopened in early 2025 without skiing, because its lifts were damaged.