BEIRUT - Mohammed Hasbini

The highlight of regional news during the past month was Israel’s air raid on Ain al-Saheb, North West of Damascus. The raid was the first Israeli offensive against Syria in the last 30 years since the 1973 October war.

Meanwhile, Palestinian factions vowed to revenge Israel offenses on any Arab country.

For readers who are new to the Syrian-Israeli conflict, Alternative presents a look at major events in relations between the two countries.

1948: Syria joined other Arab countries in an attack on Israel after Israel declared independence. Egypt agreed to a UN-brokered armistice in February 1949, and similar agreements with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq followed.

1967: After continuing border skirmishes and Egypt's closure of the Gulf of Aqaba, Israel struck at Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Israel occupies Syria's Golan Heights, a strategic plateau above the Sea of Galilee, and seizes the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt and the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan.

1973: Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise attack in October against the Israeli-held Sinai and Golan Heights. The troops made gains but were beaten back on both fronts. In Israel's counterattack, its forces advanced out of the Golan and further into Syrian territory, to within 18 miles (29 kilometers) of Damascus. A cease-fire took effect after more than two weeks of fighting, fixing lines at their pre-war positions.

1976-77: Syria, fearing Israeli intervention, sends troops into neighboring Lebanon to quell the country's civil war with the blessing of the Arab League. Syrian troops -- the key to Damascus' influence in Lebanon  -- have remained in the country ever since, with up to 40,000 at one point, though the number is now thought to be around 20,000.

1978-82: Israel invades southern Lebanon in 1978 to combat the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Israel invades again in June 1982. US-mediated talks in August persuade the PLO to leave Lebanon. A multinational peacekeeping force arrives and stays until 1984. Israel maintains its occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000 as a presumably buffer zone.

1981: Israel annexes the Golan Heights, though no country recognizes its sovereignty there. Israel establishes settlements in the territory, where now about 18,000 Israelis live.

1982-83: Syria supports the Shiite Muslim militant group Hizbullah to establish itself in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley. Hizbullah becomes the main guerrilla group battling Israel's occupation in southern Lebanon.

1993: Syria joined US-sponsored peace process with Israel. Off-and-on negotiations follow, but little progress is made while Israel signs a peace deal with Jordan and interim agreements with the Palestinians.

1999: Israel-Syria peace talks launched at highest-ever level when Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets Syria's Foreign Minister Farouq Sharaa in Washington. Months later, talks collapse in a dispute over the amount of Golan Heights land to be returned to Damascus and security guarantees to be given Israel.

2000: Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon.

April 16, 2001: Israeli warplanes blasted a Syrian radar station in Lebanon, killing three Syrian soldiers, in retaliation for a Hezbollah attach that killed an Israel soldier.

September 2003: An Israeli raid on Ain al-Saheb, west of Damascus. The Lebanese-Israeli border becomes very tense but cools down under international calls for self-restraint. Palestinian factions also vow revenge if Israel persist with attacking Arab countries.