Fijian U.N. peacekeepers released by al-Qaeda-linked group Nusra Front in Syria on Thursday, gesture from inside a vehicle as they arrive in Israeli-held territory on the Golan heights, Sept. 11.

DAMASCUS — Dozens of Fijian U.N. peacekeepers, released by al Qaeda-linked group Nusra Front in Syria, arrived in Israeli-held territory on the Golan Heights on Thursday, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

“We opened the border and they entered,” the Israeli military spokeswoman said, without giving numbers.

A witness said after the peacekeepers crossed over they were driven away in a convoy of U.N. minibuses.

Some 45 Fijian soldiers were taken hostage two weeks ago when Islamist militant groups including Nusra attacked them in the volatile frontier area between Syria and Israel.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed their release and, according to a spokesman, demanded that all parties in the area respect the U.N. force’s “mandate, freedom of movement and the safety and security of its personnel.”

Nusra initially said it held the peacekeepers because they were aiding soldiers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Later, sources close to Nusra said it demanded the removal of the group from the West’s terrorist list.

The Nusra group on Wednesday posted a video on its Twitter and YouTube accounts in which the hostages said they expected to be freed soon.

A U.N. source earlier said the militants had insisted on such a video as a condition of the peacekeepers’ release.

“We are all safe and alive and we thank Jabhat al-Nusra for keeping us safe and keeping us alive. I’d like to assure you that we have not been harmed in any way,” one hostage, who was not identified, said in the footage.

“We understand that with the limited resources that they have, they have provided the best for us and we truly appreciate it and we thank them. We are thankful that Jabhat al-Nusra has kept its word and that we will be going home.”

A U.N. spokesman said in New York on Thursday no ransom had been requested for the Fijian peacekeepers and none was paid. He said the UN mission in the region remained viable and would continue to fulfill its mandate.

Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama said the released men were heroes and pledged his commitment to providing peacekeepers to the region and elsewhere.

An attack on a meeting of a Syrian rebel chiefs in the north Tuesday killed at least 28 leaders from one group.

“Twenty-eight heads of the Ahrar al-Sham group were killed in an explosion that targeted a meeting tonight… in Idlib province,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said

The death toll was expected to mount as more than 50 military and religious leaders attended the meeting in the basement of a house at Ram Hamdan, northeast of Idlib city.

Among those who died was Ahrar al-Sham leader Hassan Abbud, said the Islamic Front, the country’s biggest rebel alliance, in a statement on Twitter.

Neither the Islamic Front and Abdel Rahman were able to say who may have been behind the attack.

Ahrar al-Sham is the main group in the Islamic Front, which has been battling to topple the government.

In recent months it has also been locked in fighting with the Islamic State militants.

Nearly all of Idlib province is under the control of various rebel groups, including the Islamic Front. Its capital city, also Idlib City, remains in the hands of the regime.

Russia said on Thursday U.S. air strikes against the “Islamic State” in Syria without a U.N. Security Council mandate would be an act of aggression, raising the possibility of a new confrontation with the West in coming weeks.

“The U.S. president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the U.S. armed forces against ISIL positions in Syria without the consent of the legitimate government,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

“This step, in the absence of a U.N. Security Council decision, would be an act of aggression, a gross violation of international law.”

Barack Obama said on Wednesday he had authorized U.S. air strikes for the first time in Syria and more attacks in Iraq, in an escalation of the campaign against the “Islamic State” militant group.

Western states have ruled out working with Assad, saying he has indirectly helped “Islamic State” grow in order to weaken other opposition groups.

Obama, who is due to host a leaders’ security conference at the U.N. General Assembly in two weeks’ time, made no mention of seeking an international mandate for action in Syria.