The mayor of a village in Syria's Golan Heights told AFP on Monday that he had met with representatives of the Israeli army, which has been making incursions into the area and has ordered residents to surrender their weapons.

Mohammad Mazen Mreiwel, the mayor of Jabata al-Khashab, said he had met with Israeli soldiers three times at their request on the outskirts of the village, where the Israeli army has been stationed since last month.

On Dec. 8, the day Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed, the Israeli army announced it had deployed in the demilitarized buffer zone of the Golan Heights, in southwestern Syria, near the area of the plateau occupied by Israel since 1967 and annexed in 1981.

According to the mayor, the initial meeting involved Israeli soldiers demanding the weapons be handed over within 48 hours.

He explained that "after the collapse of the Syrian army, there were weapons left in abandoned military positions near the village, and local residents had taken these weapons."

The mayor added that the Israeli army had designated a location where residents could hand over the weapons.

During his last meeting with Israeli officials on Sunday, Mreiwel said, "we told them we had no more weapons, and if we did, we would hand them over to the Syrian government."

He stressed that he informed the Israelis, "we are not authorized to meet with you," as Syria and Israel are still technically at war.

Jabata al-Khashab is located in the buffer zone, where peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) are stationed. Israeli patrols occasionally circulate on the village’s main street.

In the nearby town of al-Baath, Israeli tanks are stationed in the town center, according to an AFP correspondent.

The forces of the former Syrian government abruptly abandoned their positions in southern Syria ahead of the arrival of rebel groups in Damascus on Dec. 8.

The U.N. considers Israel’s presence in the buffer zone a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement.