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Israeli Soldiers Enter Syrian Golan Heights

After Israel was forced to rescue UN forces in the Golan Heights, the UN warned of instability in the Syrian Golan and the danger posed by Syrian rebels affiliated with al-Qaeda, reports Inna Lazareva.
An Israeli tank is transported on a truck to the Israeli Syrian border in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights March 24, 2013. Israel said it fired into Syria on Sunday and destroyed a machinegun position in the Golan Heights from where shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in a further spillover of the Syrian civil war along a tense front. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (MILITARY POLITICS) -

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.

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