The Israeli government decided on Sunday to double its population on the occupied Golan Heights while saying threats from Syria remained despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

The hilly, 1,200-square-km area is a fertile and strategic plateau that overlooks Israel’s Galilee region as well as Lebanon, and borders Jordan

The Golan Heights, situated in the southwest corner of Syria and bordering Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, is a 1,000 square mile rocky plateau around 40 miles (60 kilometres) from Damascus, although it possesses a significance far beyond that and has been a political flashpoint for decades.

Following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government, Israeli troops moved into the demilitarised zone inside Syria created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, including the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon that overlooks Damascus, where it took over an abandoned Syrian military post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the regime change in Syria is fuelling the need to bolster the Israeli population in the region.

Israel expands its occupation of Syrian Golan Heights by capturing UN-supervised demilitarized buffer zone - Anadolu Ajansı

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said he had ordered troops to “take over” the zone between his country and Syria.

By Howard Goller JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel agreed on Sunday to double its population on the occupied Golan Heights while saying threats from Syria remained despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago.

The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan to invest more than $10 million in the occupied Golan Heights. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan aims to double the population in the region, his office announced.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he will double the Israeli population of the Golan Heights following the fall of Syria's Bashar Al-Assad. The Israeli government approved the plan Sunday.