United Nations peacekeepers warned Tuesday that the Israeli military has committed “severe violations” of its cease-fire agreement with Syria as it advances a major construction project along the Alpha Line, which marks the boundary between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria.
The warning from the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has monitored the area since 1974, follows an Associated Press (AP) report Monday featuring satellite images revealing the scale of the construction along the border.
UNDOF stated the project, which began in July, comes on the heels of the Israeli military’s completion of new roads and a possible buffer zone along the Gaza-Israel border.
Israeli forces have also reportedly started demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other U.N. peacekeepers have recently faced attacks.
While violence hasn’t erupted along the Alpha Line, UNDOF warned the construction risks further inflaming regional tensions.
“These severe violations of the demilitarized zone have the potential to increase tensions in the area and are being closely monitored by UNDOF,” the force said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Syrian officials declined to comment on the construction, though UNDOF reported Syria had “strongly protested” the work.
High-resolution images taken Nov. 5 by Planet Labs PBC for the AP show more than 7.5 kilometers (4.6 miles) of construction along the Alpha Line, starting about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) southeast of the Israeli-held Druze town of Majdal Shams.
That’s the town where a July rocket strike killed 12 children playing football.
The images appear to show a trench between two embankments, parts of which are laid with fresh asphalt.
Fencing also appears to run along it toward the Syrian side.
The construction route extends southeast before turning south along the Alpha Line and then cutting southeast again.
The images show excavators and other earth-moving equipment actively digging, with additional asphalt visible nearby.
The area is also believed to be littered with unexploded ordnance and mines from decades of conflict.
As Israel conducted the work, which UNDOF described as “extensive engineering groundwork activities” and “ditches,” it protected earth-moving equipment with armored vehicles and main battle tanks, the peacekeepers said Tuesday. Troops and equipment reportedly crossed the Alpha Line into the demilitarized zone in Syria, known to UNDOF as the “area of separation.”
“Violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement have occurred where engineering works encroached into the AoS,” the peacekeepers said, using an acronym for the area. “There have been several violations by [Israel] in the form of their presence in the AoS because of these activities.”
UNDOF has repeatedly protested the work, which it described as violating the cease-fire agreement during months of construction.
“Based on our engagement, [Israel] has indicated that the current earthworks are being carried out for defensive purposes to prevent unauthorized crossings and violations by civilians,” the peacekeepers added.
Israel sent a 71-page letter in June to the U.N., outlining what it described as “Syrian violations of the Alpha Line and armed presence in the area of separation that occur daily.”
The letter cited numerous alleged violations by Syrian civilians crossing the line.
Syria has consistently accused Israel of launching attacks from territory it occupies in the Golan Heights.
Israel has frequently struck Syria, especially following the Middle East conflicts after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, incursion on southern Israel.
Israel seized control of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
The U.N. Security Council voted to create UNDOF to patrol a roughly 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized zone and maintain peace there after the 1973 Middle East war.
A second demarcation, known as the Bravo Line, marks the limit of where the Syrian military can operate.
The lines are delineated by barrels.
UNDOF includes around 1,100 troops, mostly from Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Nepal and Uruguay, who patrol the area.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 – a move criticized by a U.N. resolution declaring it “null and void and without international legal effect.” The territory, roughly 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles), provides strategic high ground overlooking both Israel and Syria.
Around 50,000 Jewish settlers and Arabs, mostly members of the Druze sect of Shiite Islam, live there.
In 2019, President Donald Trump unilaterally announced that the United States would “fully recognize” Israel’s control of the territory, a decision that has remained unchanged under the Biden administration.
However, the U.S. is the only country to do so, as the rest of the world considers it occupied Syrian territory.
