Syria's Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned Israel's decision to double the number of settlers in the Golan Heights, calling it a "dangerous and unprecedented escalation", state television reported.
Israel's government set a goal on Sunday of doubling the number of Jewish settlers in the Golan within five years, a move that could tighten its hold on the territory it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day war.
"Syria strongly condemns the dangerous and unprecedented escalation from the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and its persistence in settlement policies and grave and methodological violations that rise to the level of war crimes," a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's cabinet voted in favor of the plan that aims to build 7,300 homes in the region over a five-year period, during a meeting held at the Mevo Hama community in the Golan.
It calls for NIS 1 billion to be spent on housing, infrastructure and other projects with the goal of attracting roughly 23,000 new Jewish settlers to the area.
"Our goal today is to double the population of the Golan Heights," Bennett said ahead of the meeting.
He was forced to leave the meeting after his 14-year-old daughter tested positive for the coronavirus, putting him into isolation, but a vote on the program went ahead after a delay.
Around 25,000 Israeli settlers live in the Golan Heights, along with about 23,000 Druze, who remained on the land after Israel seized it.
Israel annexed the territory on December 14, 1981, in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump granted American recognition to Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in 2019.