QUNAYTIRAH, AL-

also spelled El-kuneitra, abandoned town in the UN-monitored demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel. It was an important regional hub and administrative centre in southwestern Syria until 1967, when it was occupied by Israeli military forces. When the Israelis withdrew in 1974, they systematically stripped and destroyed the town. The Syrians decided not to resettle it, preferring to let its ruined state serve as a reminder of the Israeli occupation. Al-Qunaytirah is situated in a valley in the Golan Heights (q.v.). It was settled at least as early as Byzantine times and served, until the 19th century, as a stopover for caravans. By the 20th century Muslim Circassians, a Caucasus Mountain people, had settled there and made Al-Qunaytirah their cultural centre. With the formation of modern Syria, the town grew more Arab in character and, by the mid-1960s, had become an important road junction, regional market centre, and Syrian military post of more than 20,000 inhabitants. On June 10, 1967, the town was captured by Israeli forces during the Six-Day War. Al-Qunaytirah was abandoned almost entirely, as most of its inhabitants fled to other parts of Syria. The Syrians temporarily regained Al-Qunaytirah during the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, but Israeli forces soon recaptured the town. The disengagement agreement signed in 1974 called for the Israeli military forces to withdraw from the town, and Al-Qunay tirah was included in the territory that was incorporated into a demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and Israel and placed under the supervision of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force.