STORY: Israeli forces on Sunday patrolled inside a recently-seized demilitarized zone along the border with Syria...
... as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to double the number of Israelis living in the part of the Golan Heights Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war.
Netanyahu's office said the government unanimously approved a more than $11 million plan to encourage demographic growth in the Golan.
It said Netanyahu submitted the plan to the government "in light of the war and the new front-facing Syria, and out of a desire to double the population in the Golan."
:: Israeli Army
Israel sent its troops into a longstanding buffer zone earlier this month as Syrian rebels ousted the long-reigning president, Bashar al-Assad.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have condemned the incursion.
Israeli leaders said it was a temporary security measure in light of the instability in Syria.
:: Israeli Army
Amid the tumult in Syria, Israel airstrikes targeted hundreds of military sites across the country.
:: File
Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said on Saturday that Israel was using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria.
He also said he was not interested in engaging in new conflicts as his country focuses on rebuilding.
Sharaa - better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani - leads the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (or HTS), the group that swept Assad from power last Sunday, ending the family's five-decade iron-fisted rule.
:: File
Israel annexed captured parts of the Golan Heights in 1981.
Syria has long rejected Israeli claims to the territory, but past efforts to reach a peace treaty failed.
In 2019, then-President Donald Trump declared U.S. support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.
But the annexation has not been recognized by most countries.