On March 8, while 21 UN observers were being held captive by Syrian rebels, another group of observers was running for their lives. Caught up in fighting between the Syrian army and rebels, they fled down a steep mountain. There, they were helped by Israeli Defense Forces soldiers who entered the Syrian Golan Heights to rescue them. The incident marked the most significant instance of Israeli soldiers crossing into the Syrian Golan Heights since 1974.

Camp Faouar, part of a United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) Zone, can be seen on a distant hill in Syria from a vantage point close to an IDF base. The UN camp is in a buffer zone just dozens of meters from the Israeli border.

IDF Brig. Gen. Gal Hirsch, together with Ministry of Defense patrol officials, pointed to that area of the UN camp and spoke of a "battle on this post between the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian army” several weeks ago. Syrian rebels had captured the Syrian army’s military post located on top of a mountain “for a few hours” before the Syrian army went to reclaim it. A bloody battle followed.

“There were UN troops very close to this battle who had to leave their posts," Hirsch said. They escaped by “going down the cliff and climbing by foot to the Israeli border.”