New Israeli town established in Syrian buffer zone, activists say

Israeli pioneer group crossed into Syrian demilitarized zone now under IDF control and established a new community, activists claim, before being detained by army.

By World Israel News Staff

A group of Israeli settlement activists claims they established a new town inside Syrian territory this week, in their latest attempt to cement Israeli control over areas in the IDF’s security perimeter.

On Monday, activists from the Uri Tzafon movement crossed from the Israeli side of the Golan Heights into the demilitarized zone.

The crossing, which was not conducted in coordination with the IDF or Israeli government, took place adjacent to the Israeli town of Alonei HaBashan, located on the eastern edge of the Israeli Golan Heights.

The Uri Tzafon activists, who dubbed themselves the Pioneers of the Bashan, crossed the frontier, moving towards Tell al-Harrah, inside the 1974 buffer zone.

Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel ceded roughly one-third of the Golan Heights to create a demilitarized zone under Syrian civil administration.

After the Assad regime collapsed in December, 2024, Israel seized control over the buffer zone, declaring that the 1974 deal had lapsed with the Syrian government’s overthrow.

The IDF has since taken up positions in the demilitarized zone.

While Israel annexed the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1981, Jerusalem has signaled it has no plans to extend Israeli law over the former demilitarized zone.

The Uri Tzafon movement, established after the outbreak of war on Israel’s border with Lebanon in 2023, has called for the creation of new Israeli towns in parts of Lebanon placed under IDF security control.

The group has made several attempts to settle north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, with a number of brief, unauthorized crossings reported.

In each case, the activists were returned to Israeli territory by IDF soldiers.

Since last December, the group has extended its mission to settling parts of the former buffer zone in the Golan.

During Monday’s crossing into the Syrian Golan, activists held what they dubbed a “cornerstone laying ceremony” for the new community called Neve HaBashan.

According to a report by Walla, after the ceremony, IDF forces detained the activists for questioning, before releasing them in Israel.