UN peacekeepers held by
rebels for three days in southern Syria and freed at the weekend
crossed into Israel from neighboring Jordan on Monday, a
military spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman would not comment, however, on a report by
an Israeli newspaper that Israeli troops had later escorted the
21 Filipino peacekeepers back to their base along the Syrian
frontier with the
Golan Heights.
The peacekeepers, part of the UN Disengagement Observer
Force (UNDOF) that has monitored the ceasefire line between
Israel and Syria since 1974, were released on Saturday by rebels
fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad and taken to
Jordan.
The men had been held in the village of
Jamla, some 10 km (6
miles) from the Jordanian border with
Syria. The
United Nations
said they had been captured by 30 rebel fighters.
"I can confirm that they came into Israel today, from
Jordan," the Israeli spokeswoman said of the freed peacekeepers.
It was not immediately clear why the peacekeepers would end
up in
Israel, but, logistically, it would be safe for them to
return to their main command post via
Israel.
The spokeswoman refused to comment on the report on the
Maariv newspaper's website that Israeli soldiers had escorted
the Filipinos by bus from the Jordan border region to their base
in the Golan.
The paper said that
Israel, already worried about
Syria's
two-year civil war spilling across its border, was also
concerned that the incident with the peacekeepers might lead
member countries to pull troops out of UNDOF.
The peacekeepers have helped monitor an enduring though
often tense agreement brokered by the United States in 1974,
under which Israel and Syria are allowed a limited number of
forces within 20 km of a disengagement line in the Golan.
Israel captured the strategic Golan plateau from
Syria in a
1967 war and later annexed the territory.
There have been a number incidents in which shells from
Syria's civil war have landed in
Israel since November, the
latest as recently as Saturday. None have caused any casualties.
