Israel stepped up its attacks on regime targets in Syria for the third consecutive day on Wednesday in what it said was an effort to protect the Druze community in southern Syria, after reports that hundreds of residents had been killed in clashes with Bedouin gunmen and Syrian government forces over recent days.
Among the targets hit were the palace of President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus, along with tanks, armoured personnel carriers and soldiers in the predominantly Druze areas in and around Sweida, where most of the violence has taken place over the last few days.
As the violence escalated, Israel’s Druze community called a general strike and urged the government to intervene to stop the “massacre” in Syria. More than a thousand Druze from across northern Israel, some of them armed, stormed the border fence on the Golan Heights, pouring into Syria. Some Druze refugees from Syria also made their way to the border to flee the violence.
The Israeli army sent reinforcements to the border area.
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Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu urged the Israeli Druze who crossed the border to return home. “You are endangering your lives; you could be killed, you could be kidnapped, and you are harming the IDF’s [Israel Defense Forces’] efforts,” he said. “We are taking action to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime’s militias. Therefore, I ask you – return to your homes. Let the IDF do its job.”
The Druze minority in Israel enjoy full citizenship and most serve in the army. Many of them have relatives in Syria and described horrific tales of murder, rape and kidnapping of civilians along with cases of humiliation perpetrated by regime-backed Jihadi fighters, such as the cutting off of moustaches, common among Druze males.
Mr Netanyahu, after the fall of the regime of president Bashar el Assad last December, vowed that Israel would safeguard the Druze minority.
[ Israel launches powerful strikes on Damascus, vowing to protect Druze in SyriaOpens in new window ]
Diaspora affairs minister Amichai Chikli called for Israel to assassinate Mr al-Sharaa, whom he termed a “murderer”. “We must not stand idly by in the face of the Islamist-Nazi terror regime of al-Qaeda in a suit and tie,” he said.
In addition to protecting the Druze minority, Israel’s other key interest is to prevent Islamist militias or regime forces from entrenching themselves in the south, close to the Israeli border. Immediately after the fall of the Assad regime, Israel seized swathes of territory, including the peak of the Hermon mountain, creating a de facto buffer zone along the border.
In recent weeks, there have been contacts between Israel and Syria, with encouragement from Washington, over the possibility of improving bilateral ties. This week’s violence has buried those hopes for the foreseeable future.
