Middle EastAnalysis

Wider Druze community reeling in shock over 12 deaths in missile strike

Incident exposes the sensitive situation of the Levant’s Druze across the region as Israel vows retaliation for deadly strike

Protesters protested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he visited the site of a rocket strike that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights.
Michael Jansen's picture
Michael Jansen
Mon Jul 29 2024 - 16:20

The deaths of 12 Druze youths in a missile strike on Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights has affected members of the community across the region.

Israel has blamed Hizbullah and vowed retaliation. While Hizbullah has targeted Israel’s Maaleh Golani military base two kilometres from the Druze town, the Lebanese movement has denied blame for the strike.

Lebanese foreign minister Abdullah Bou Habib has called for an international investigation or a meeting by UN peacekeepers to determine responsibility for the attack. He warned that a major attack by Israel on Lebanon could “spark regional war”.

Beirut’s L’Orient-Le Jour cited retired Lebanese army general Elie Hanna who suggested that either an “errant” Hizbullah missile struck the town instead of hitting the military base, or that the explosion was caused by an Israeli interceptor missile that brought the rocket down on Majdal Shams.

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“The Israelis now have an excuse to intensify their attacks, citing self-defence after the death of so many children,” said Hanna.

The incident exposes the sensitive situation of the Levant’s Druze who adhere to an esoteric, monotheistic faith which distinguishes them from Muslims, Christians and Jews among whom they live. To survive, the Druze have adopted “taqiyya,” a form of deception in which religious beliefs are concealed, which allows them to blend in with locals.

Druze status was complicated by political division after the 1948 creation of Israel and by Israel’s 1967 occupation of Syria’s Golan.

Most of Israel’s 127,000 Druze citizens live in the north. Druze men serve in the Israeli army, and Druze are represented in the political parties, civil service, and media although they do not enjoy equality with Jewish Israelis.

Of the 23,000 Golan Druze, 20 per cent have opted for Israeli citizenship while the rest remain Syrians, have close ties to relatives in Syria and are largely loyal to the Damascus government. They live in Majdal Shams and three other Golan towns.

The estimated 350,000 Lebanese Druze constitute a main actor on the political scene, have eight deputies in the 128-seat parliament, and serve in the army and administration.

International lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney is a high-profile Lebanese Druze. Community leader Walid Jumblatt, who is allied to Hizbullah, condemned Israel’s occupation as the cause of violence and warned that Israel is trying to “incite strife [and] fragment the region”.

Syria’s 600,000 Druze are concentrated in Jabal Druze, a rural district southeast of Damascus. While comprising a small percentage of the population, Druze have played key roles in politics, academia and culture. Syria’s cabinet blamed Israel for the Majdal Shams attack, while Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian told French president Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that any l Israeli attack on Lebanon would have severe consequences.

Since Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, cross-border exchanges between Hizbullah and Israel have killed at least 527 people in Lebanon, including 104 civilians, according to Agence France Presse. Israel’s authorities have said 22 soldiers and 24 civilians have been killed.