United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)
- Duration
- 16 January 1995 - 31 May 1997
- Military personnel
- 1
- Fatalities
- none
- Decorations
- none
In May 1974, Israel and Syria signed an agreement which made provisions for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the section of the Golan Heights that had been seized in the Yom Kippur war of 1973.
Buffer zone separates forces
The agreement also stipulated a reduction of the Syrian and Israeli troops in the bordering Area of Limitation (AOL), which covered virtually the whole of the Golan. The 2 forces were physically separated by a buffer zone, which was in any event under a Syrian civilian administration.
Peace mission
Both countries consented to the arrival of a new peace mission for the Golan Heights: the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). The Security Council ratified the Israeli-Syrian agreement on 31 May 1974. UNDOF set up its headquarters first in the location of the ISMAC in Damascus and from 1992 in Camp Faouar in the Syrian part of the AOL. Assigned to the new mission under operational command were the UNTSO observers of the Observer Group Golan, who, together with 2 infantry battalions, made up UNDOF’s main force.