Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria in the context of "UNDOF"

Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, Israel invaded the buffer zone in southwestern Syria (adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights) and has continued to occupy it. Israel also carried out an aerial bombing campaign to cripple the new Syrian Armed Forces, and demanded that it stay out of southern Syria. Israel's government claimed this was to thwart any "potential threat" from post-war Syria.

Israel took advantage of the power vacuum created by the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to increase the amount of territory it controlled by several hundred square miles. Israel declared the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement with Ba'athist Syria to be void. Israel initially said this new invasion would be "temporary", but later said it would hold onto the territory for an "unlimited time". Israel also launched extensive aerial and naval strikes on Syrian military targets across the country, under an operation codenamed Operation Arrow of Bashan (Hebrew: מבצע חץ הבשן, romanized: Mivtza Ḥetz HaBashan). Israel's campaign crippled Syria's military capabilities, including its army and its navy, and destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles.

The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission tasked with maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The mission was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 350 on 31 May 1974, to implement Resolution 338 (1973) which called for an immediate ceasefire and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.

The resolution was passed on the same day as the Agreement on Disengagement. It was signed by Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, finally establishing a ceasefire to end the war. From 1974 to 2012, UNDOF performed its functions with the full cooperation of both sides. Since 1974 its mandate has been renewed every six months. The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) and UNDOF operate in the UNDOF Zone, a demilitarized zone between the two sides and continue to supervise the ceasefire.