Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights

The Golan Heights are a rocky plateau in the Levant region of Western Asia that was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community, with the exception of Israel and the United States, considers the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held by Israel under military occupation.^[1] Following the war, Syria dismissed any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution.^[2]

The Golan was under military administration until the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law in 1981, which applied Israeli law to the territory; a move that has been described as an annexation. In response, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed UNSC Resolution 497 which condemned the Israeli actions to change the status of the territory declaring them "null and void and without international legal effect", and that the Golan remained an occupied territory. In 2019, the United States became the only state to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli sovereign territory, while the rest of the international community continues to consider the territory Syrian held under Israeli military occupation.^[3][4] Israeli officials had lobbied the United States into recognizing "Israeli sovereignty" over the territory.^[5] On 8 December 2024, following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria, Israeli forces seized Syrian positions in the UNDOF buffer zone.

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