The future of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has become a hot topic of debate, after the Israel Defense Forces pushed troops and tanks over the border into Syrian territory.

Residents of a Syrian village near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights say Israeli forces have set up a position in an abandoned army base and are preventing local farmers from accessing their fields.

Assad's regime in Damascus, Israel's military advances into Syria have raised alarm. Initially, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had stated that the advances were a temporary measure to ensure Israel's security at the border with Syria,

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.

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.

Israel's "demographic development" plan to increase settler numbers only applies to the area of the Golan Heights that Israel seized during the Six Day War in 1967 and later annexed in 1981 and not to territory taken since al-Assad's ouster.