Israel's government has approved a five-year, $334 million plan to settle approximately 3,000 new Jewish families in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights (a strategically vital plateau seized by Israel in 1967 and annexed in 1981, though the annexation is recognised only by the United States), with the centrepiece being the expansion of the settlement of Katzrin into what officials describe as the region's "first city." The announcement came on the same day, 17 April, that Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said Damascus was seeking negotiations with Tel Aviv over Israel's military presence beyond the 1974 disengagement line — a statement that appeared to carry little weight given Israel's stated ambitions. Human Rights Watch has documented forced displacement of Syrian villagers in newly occupied areas, including soldiers threatening families at gunpoint, overnight demolitions of homes and orchards, and the arbitrary detention of civilians transferred to Israel without charge — practices the organisation says amount to war crimes under international law.