During the Six-Day War, Israel captured the territory, and subsequently repelled a Syrian attempt to recapture it during the Yom Kippur War. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 with the Golan Heights Law.[19] Israel began building settlements throughout the Golan Heights, and offered the Druze and Circassian residents citizenship, which most turned down. Today, Israel regards the Golan Heights as its sovereign territory, and a strategic necessity.