Group of UN peacekeepers leave Golan post Eight UN peacekeepers left their post in the Golan Heights and entered Israel overnight, two days after 21 Filipino observers were kidnapped by Syrian rebels in the area. "There are eight UN Disengagement Observer Force soldiers who were evacuated from a post in the demilitarised zone on the Syrian Golan Heights," an Israeli Defence Forces spokeswoman said. IDF soldiers in co-ordination with the UN met them near the border and escorted them into Israel. Israel's army would not comment on the evacuated soldiers" nationality, or say why they had left Syria. The incident happened early on Friday morning. Israel's Ynet news website reported that the troops had been ordered by their commander to abandon their post for fear that rebels might attempt to capture more peacekeepers. Israeli media said the soldiers had been taken to an UNDOF base near the Quneitra crossing, on the Israeli-occupied side of the ceasefire line. UN peacekeepers have been monitoring the ceasefire line in the Golan Heights since 1974. As of the end of January there were 1,011 peacekeeping troops in the Golan, as well as 40 international civilians and 99 local civilians connected to the operation, according to the UN. The latest incident followed intense fighting near Syria's border with Israel, which is trying to stay out of the civil war that has killed some 70,000 people to date. It comes as western governments step up their aid to the Syrian opposition. Croatia last month said it would withdraw its nearly 100 UNDOF forces from the Golan after media reports that Syrian rebels were receiving weapons from the country. The 21 kidnapped peacekeepers remained in captivity on Friday. The Philippine government said that the Syrian rebels were sticking to their demands for a repositioning of Syrian government forces backing President Bashar al-Assad before any handover, the Associated Press reported. Hussam al-Din Awak, brigadier general of the Free Syria Army told BBC Arabic on Thursday that kidnapping the peacekeepers was a serious mistake, and that the rebels were working towards releasing them.