Israel’s government on Sunday approved a plan to double its population in the Golan Heights following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was needed as a “new front” had opened up on Israel’s border with Syria an Islamist-led rebel alliance seized power in the Middle Eastern country. 

“Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.

The Golan Heights is an area of 1,800 square kilometres on the Israel-Syria border. Israel captured most of the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, annexing it in 1981. Although only about two-thirds of what is known as the Golan Heights is under Israel’s control, it manages the most strategic points.

The Golan is home to 24,000 Druze– an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam– most of whom identify as Syrian, according to analyst Avraham Levine of the Alma Research and Education Center. 

Over the years, some 31,000 Israelis have also settled in the area, Mr Levine, who specialises in Israel’s security challenges on its northern border, was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.