TEL AVIV — Israel has approved a five-year development plan worth roughly $334 million to expand its settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, according to reports published on April 16, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
The plan, which covers the years 2026 to 2030, will channel nearly 1 billion shekels into improving infrastructure and growing the population in the strategic plateau seized from Syria nearly six decades ago. Israeli media said the effort aims to promote Katzrin; currently the largest settlement in the area, into “the Golan’s first city.”
Cabinet minister Ze’ev Elkin announced the initiative after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met earlier this week with local leaders, including Katzrin Council head Yehuda Dua and Golan Regional Council head Uri Kellner. The Directorate of Tnufa for the North will jointly oversee the project with local authorities.
Dua described the plan as a cornerstone for the region’s future. “We will strengthen academia, research, and the University of Kiryat Shmona by opening a branch in Katzrin with a faculty and a veterinary hospital,” he said. Officials hope to attract about 3,000 new Israeli families to Katzrin and other parts of the Golan by the end of the decade.
Under international law, however, the Golan Heights remain recognized as Syrian territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. Any Israeli settlement expansion in the area is widely considered illegal. Critics say the new plan signals Israel’s growing intent to cement control over lands that have long been disputed.
Tensions have also deepened since Israel captured a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Golan Heights in 2024, shortly after President Bashar al-Assad was ousted. The newly occupied buffer zone, a roughly 400-square-kilometer stretch, has provoked outrage, with opponents accusing Israel of violating a 1974 ceasefire and exploiting Syria’s instability to expand its reach.
As international debate continues, Israel’s push to reshape the Golan Heights now stands as one of its most ambitious and controversial efforts in years.
