Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he has instructed the military to assume control of the buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria. This move marks the first time Israeli troops will be stationed in the buffer zone since the establishment of the line of control between Israel and Syria in 1974.
The Golan Heights was captured by Israel from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981, although most international powers, with the exception of the United States, consider it as occupied Syrian territory.
