Purple Line (ceasefire line)

{{pp|small=yes}} {{Short description|De facto border between Israel and Syria since the 1967 Six-Day War}} {{use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}

[[File:Golan heights rel89A.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The UNDOF Zone (Purple Line) in the Golan Heights serves as the de facto border between Israel and Syria]]

The '''Purple Line''' was the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria after the 1967 Six-Day War which serves as the de facto border between the two countries. Following the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, Israel broke the Purple Line during its invasion of Syria.

==History== Syria gained independence from France in 1946 and on 14 May 1948, the British withdrew from Palestine as Israel declared its independence. Syrian forces participated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War between Arab forces and the newly established State of Israel. In 1949, armistice agreements were signed and a provisional border between Syria and Israel was delineated (based on the 1923 international border; see ''San Remo conference''). Syrian and Israeli forces clashed on numerous occasions in the spring of 1951. The hostilities, which stemmed from Syrian opposition to an Israeli drainage project in the demilitarized zone, ceased on 15 May, after intercession by the United Nations Security Council.{{Cn|date=September 2021}}

[[File:Majdal Shams border 11.jpg|thumb|250px|The Purple Line through Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights]] In June 1967 after battling Syria, Jordan and Egypt in the Six-Day War, Israel captured the entire length of the Golan Heights including its principal city Quneitra.<ref>{{cite book |last=Oren |first=Michael B. |title=Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East |year=2017 |orig-date=2002 |publisher=Presido Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-345-46192-6 |pages=294–302}}</ref> The resulting ceasefire line (dubbed the "Purple Line" as it was drawn on the UN's maps){{Cn|date=September 2021}} was supervised by a series of positions and observation posts staffed by observers of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization<ref>{{cite book |last=Theobald |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CTvCQAAQBAJ |chapter=The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) |title=Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations |editor-last1=Koops |editor-first1=Joachim|editor-last2= MacQueen |editor-first2= Norrie |editor-last3= Tardy |editor-first3= Thierry |editor-last4= Williams |editor-first4= Paul D. |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |isbn=978-0-19-968604-9 |pages=1218}}</ref> and became the new effective border between Israel and Syria.{{Cn|date=September 2021}}

In a surprise attack consisting of a massive armored thrust, the Syrians crossed the Purple Line into the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. After several days of very heavy fighting on the Golan they were pushed back deep into Syria and Israel conquered further territory inside Syria beyond the Purple Line by the time a ceasefire was reached. In the disengagements negotiations after the war, Israel and Syria agreed on 31 May 1974, to pull back their respective forces on the Golan Heights to the Purple Line. On the same day, a United Nations buffer zone was set up and the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone (UNDOF) was established by the United Nations after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 350.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/4f79ae6df5f9b5ac852560cb0075d710!OpenDocument |title=Security Council Resolution 350 (1974) of 31 May 1974 |publisher=United Nations |accessdate=2013-11-26 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621074243/http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/4f79ae6df5f9b5ac852560cb0075d710!OpenDocument |archivedate=2008-06-21 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Agreement on Disengagement (S/11302/Add.1, annexes I and II) |publisher=United Nations |url=http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/4fcbeabf0e58068085256db70074a828?OpenDocument |accessdate=2007-09-07 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526031839/http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/4fcbeabf0e58068085256db70074a828?OpenDocument |archivedate=2011-05-26 }}</ref>

==2024 Israeli invasion of Syria== {{main|2024 Israeli invasion of Syria}}On 8 December 2024, Israel invaded the buffer zone in southwestern Syria adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and carried out an aerial campaign targeting the Syrian Army's military capabilities, following the fall of the Assad regime.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Purple Line (Ceasefire Line)}} Category:Syria in the Arab–Israeli conflict Category:Israel–Syria border Category:1967 in Israel Category:1967 in Syria