UN peacekeepers will reportedly return to the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights, pictured. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – United Nations peacekeepers are reportedly set to return to the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, in recent weeks, officers and soldiers from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) have made several visits to facilities and points that they previously manned in the region.

In early February, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named Major General Jai Shanker Menon of the Indian Army as the head of UNDOF. Last week, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Moscow that Israel is interested in the return of UN forces to the Golan Heights. Israel is concerned with Iranian and Hezbollah forces in the region, as well as threats from Sunni Muslim terror groups like the Nusra Front and Islamic State.

Established in 1974 following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, UNDOF was created to maintain the cease-fire between Israel and Syria. Amid the civil war fighting in the Syrian Golan Heights between Syria’s government and rebel forces, including Islamic terror groups, the UN in 2014 withdrew all UNDOF forces from the Golan Heights and moved them into camps and outposts deeper inside of Israel, following a series of attacks on UNDOF troops.