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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Alex Croft

What is the Golan Heights and why is the territory so important to Israel and Syria?

Israeli soldiers sit on top of a tank along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights from Syria proper - (AP)

The Golan Heights, situated in the southwest corner of Syria and bordering Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, is a 1,000 square mile rocky plateau around 40 miles (60 kilometres) from Damascus, although it possesses a significance far beyond that and has been a political flashpoint for decades.

Israeli has occupied the Golan Heights since the 1980s and now its troops have seized the demilitarised buffer zone, in response to the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship in Syria.

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