A Syrian military bunker full of ammunition was uncovered on Tuesday by the Defense Ministry's Mine Action Authority on the Golan Heights in northern Israel.
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The bunker was abandoned after Israel captured the region from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The bunker was filled with hundreds of items of ammunition, including mortars of different diameters, fuses, pyrotechnical munitions, explosives, bullets for shotguns, and more. Some of the ammunition was strewn about, and others were in their original packaging.
The findings were moved to a secure storage facility where they will be held until they can be safely destroyed.
The bunker was built in Syria's al-Mourtafa outpost at the Gadot Observation Point. The outpost was one of the Syrian army's most fortified on the Golan Heights before the Six-Day War. From high above in the outpost, Syrian soldiers regularly shelled the Israeli communities in the Hula Valley below.
Thousands of mines from that era remain scattered in the surrounding fields of the outpost.
Video: Mine Action Authority/Defense Ministry
Today, the site acts as a memorial site for the IDF's Alexandroni 3rd Brigade that first broke through the Syrian lines.
The Mine Action Authority has been working to clear the area around the bunker of mines to open more parts of the Golan to hikers and tourists.
Operating since 2012, the Mine Action Authority has cleared around 3,700 acres of unnecessary minefields.
Still – while 8,150 acres of known minefields remain in Israel – some 22,200 acres of mined land throughout Israel is reportedly still unknown.
Such land is mostly in open fields on the Golan Heights, the Arava desert in southern Israel, and along Israel's borders.
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