Israel threatens Syrian refugees approaching Golan frontier zone

Scores of Syrian refugees approached the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights frontier on Tuesday, as a government offensive sees shelling and bombing pounding rebel villages in the area.

Israeli troops manning the frontier on the illegally-occupied side of the Syrian territories warned refugees to head back to their camps or face the threat of violence.

"Go back before something bad happens. If you want us to be able to help you, go back," one Israeli soldier told the Syrian refugees in Arabic, via a loudspeaker, according to Reuters.

"You are on the border of the State of Israel. Go back, we don't want to hurt you," another instructed the crowd, as they approached soldiers.

Women and children slowly backed away from the frontier fence to their makeshift shelters.

Israel captured much of the Golan Heights following its 1967 war with Syria and other Arab states, and has refused to hand back the illegally-occupied territories.

Syria's opposition held the non-occupied section of the Golan - where a UN force acted as observers - around Quneitra during the Syrian civil war.

After a sweeping offensive in the southern opposition province of Daraa, Syrian regime troops and militia fighters have turned their attention towards rebel territories around Quneitra.

An assault on Tell al-Haara - which serves as a key observation post - saw the hillside fall to the regime on Tuesday.

The Quneitra and Daraa offensives - which has been backed by massive Russian airpower - have seen hundreds of thousands of civilians flee their homes, some to the Golan and Jordan borders.

Jordan has also refused to allow refugees find sanctuary over its border with Syria in recent months.