BEIRUT--Syria on Monday condemned Israeli plans to double within five years the number of Jewish settlers in the Golan Heights captured from Syria in 1967 as a "dangerous and unprecedented escalation", Syrian state media reported.
Israel's cabinet approved a blueprint on Sunday to build some 7,300 additional housing units on the strategic plateau in a move that could tighten its hold on the territory.
"Syria strongly condemns the dangerous and unprecedented escalation by the Israeli occupation authorities" in the Golan, the state-run SANA news agency said, adding Damascus would seek to use all legally available means to retake the territory.
Speaking to Syrian TV station al-Ekhbariya, foreign minister Faisal Mekdad called Israel's actions against Syria "criminal" and said they violated the 1981 U.N. Resolution 497 declaring Israel's effective annexation of the Golan as "null and void." Israel has mounted frequent attacks against what it describes as Iranian targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah have deployed over the last decade to support President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's war.
Israel annexed the 1,200-square-kilometre (460-square-mile) Golan Heights in 1981, an action not recognised by the international community. Syria demands the return of the Golan, which also overlooks Lebanon and borders Jordan.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett cited then-U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition in 2019 of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan and no sign that his successor, Joe Biden, intends to reverse the decision, as factors behind a multimillion-dollar housing and infrastructure plan for the area.
Under a blueprint approved by the cabinet, which held its weekly session on the Golan, some 7,300 housing units will be built in Katzrin, Israel's main settlement in the area, and in smaller Jewish communities. "The aim of the decision is to double the number of (Israeli) residents in the Golan in the coming years, meaning an addition of 23,000 people in the area," a statement issued by Bennett's office said.
It said two new Golan settlements are also planned, and that 4,000 homes would be built there. Some 20,000 Druze, most of whom still identify as Syrian, also live in the Golan.
