The captors of a group of UN peacekeepers appeared in a video footage Thursday, accusing the 21 peacekeepers of helping the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad recapture al-Jamla town near the occupied Golan Heights.

A day earlier, rebels from the so-called Yarmouk Martyrs Battalion snatched a convoy of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) at al-Jamla located in the southern province of Daraa, about one kilometer from Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The rebels appeared in their first video Wednesday, calling on the Syrian troops to withdraw from al-Jamla in return for UN members' release.

The UN condemned the kidnapping and called for its staffers' release, as the head of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, made the same appeal.

In another video Thursday, the kidnappers' spokesperson contended that the peacekeepers were trying to facilitate the government's recapturing of al-Jamla, which has been almost under the rebels' control over the past 10 days.

"They claim that they want to disengage clashes at the Golan area; and they are liars ... they want the government troops to enter (al-)Jamla ... they are the helpers of the government to enter (al-)Jamla road," the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, activists said that fighting between the rebels and government troops concentrated on Thursday at the outskirts of al- Jamla.

The kidnapping incident is the first of its kind since the conflict in Syria has started almost two years ago. UNDOF was established by the UN Security Council Resolution 350 in 1971 to implement and oversee a ceasefire between archenemies Syria and Israel.

Earlier in the day, Syria's state-media said the authorities recently detected Israeli spying devices planted at certain point on the Syrian coast. It said the espionage system was camouflaged to match the nature of the sea rocks in the area, adding that the system includes cameras, satellites, six batteries, electrical generators and cables.

Last month, Israeli war jets sneaked off radars and hit a center for scientific research in a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus. Western media said that the airstrike also hit another target: a convoy that was believed to be carrying weaponries to the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, a staunch ally to Syria.

Syria has technically been in a state of war with Israel since its creation in 1948. Their enmity has risen with the Syrian administration rendering support to the Hezbollah.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it later, an act not recognized by the international community. The demilitarized zone was created after the 1973 war in which Syria tried to retake the strategic plateau. Syria has long called for Israel's full withdrawal from the area and set it as a condition for making peace with Israel.