Israel completed today the withdrawals required by the Israeli Syrian disengagement agreement when Israeli units pulled out of Kuneitra and the Rafid junction area, held since the Six-Day War of 1967, and the peak of Mt. Herman captured during the Yom Kippur War. The orderly withdrawal was marred when four Austrian officers with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were killed when their jeep hit a mine as they were moving from Syrian territory to Mt. Hermon.
Before leaving the peak, Israel held a parade which included the Golani Brigade, paratroop units, the Engineers Corps and the Armored Corp, all of whom contributed to the Israeli capture and holding of the Hermon peak. The positions on Mt. Hermon that Israeli forces handed over to UNDOF will remain under UN control as part of the buffer zone between Israel and Syria.
The Syrian civilian administration take over Kuneitra tomorrow and will be allowed only a police force for security. There will be no armored units there, according to the disengagement accord. The UN is now positioned along the narrow buffer zone which runs from the top of Mt. Hermon to the Jordanian border. Meanwhile a 500-man Syrian sapper unit has entered the buffer zone to clear it of mines before civilians are allowed to return to their homes abandoned during the Yom Kippur War, with Israeli consent.
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