Israel strikes near Syrian presidential compound amid Druze-Sunni clashes

Israel confirmed fresh airstrikes on Damascus in the area of the Syrian presidential compound on Friday morning in a warning to President Ahmed al-Sharaa as sectarian violence between Druze and Sunnis continued.

At least 22 Syrian Druze have been killed in clashes with Sunni gunmen in the Damascus area.

“The recent violence and inflammatory rhetoric targeting members of the Druze community in Syria is reprehensible and unacceptable,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement condemning the fighting.

The Friday morning strike followed up on Israeli warning strikes on Wednesday.

Israel’s Druze community has been calling on the government to take stronger measures to protect their co-religionists in southern Syria. During a Memorial Day ceremony on Wednesday, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israel’s 152,000 Druze, urged the government to intervene.

“At this moment, the eyes and hearts of the Druze community are turned toward the attacks on Druze villages around Damascus,” Tarif said. “Israel must not stand idly by in view of what is happening at this very moment in Syria.”

One Israeli Druze official who has been lobbying the government to directly intervene in southern Syria told The Press Service of Israel on Wednesday that airstrikes would not be enough.

“I call on the Prime Minister and demand immediate intervention to save the Druze in Syria — and for the IDF to get involved as soon as possible. I want to see the Armored Corps on the ground before this reaches us,” Wael Mugrabi, head of the Ein Qiniyye Local Council in the Golan Heights, told TPS-IL.

“I remind you of what Julani said: ‘Our eyes are set on Jerusalem,’” Mugrabi added, referring to al-Sharaa. “If there is no immediate intervention — we are next.”

The Druze trace their ancestry back to the Biblical figure Jethro, who they call Shuaib. On April 25, hundreds of Syrian Druze clerics were allowed to enter Israel to celebrate the holiday of Ziyara at the tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Lower Galilee.

Around 40,000 Druze live in the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra, Da’ara and Sweida under Israeli protection.

Netanyahu has called for the demilitarization of southern Syria. An estimated 700,000-800,000 Druze live in Syria, mostly in southwestern areas near Israel and Jordan. They make up around four percent of the Syrian population.

Israel’s Minister of Defence, Israel Katz, issued a statement declaring that last night’s attack on the presidential palace in Damascus, which he and the Prime Minister directed, was “a clear warning message to the Syrian regime.” Israel’s strike on the palace was intended as a warning that Israel would not tolerate the continued assaults on the Syrian-Druze by Syrian Sunni Muslims.

“When [interim president of Syria Abu Mohammad al] Julani wakes up in the morning and sees the results of the Israeli Air Force attack, he understands very well that Israel is determined to prevent harm to the Druze in Syria,” said Katz.

Katz also declared that it is Julani’s responsibility to protect the Druze in the suburbs of Damascus from harm by “jihadist rioters” and to allow the hundreds of thousands of Druze in As Suwayda and the Druze Mountains to defend themselves on their own and “not to send jihadist forces into the communities.”

“It is our duty to protect the Druze in Syria from harm, for the sake of our Druze brothers in Israel and their loyalty to the state and their enormous contribution to Israel’s security,” he added explaining why the State of Israel is intervening on behalf of the Druze.

At least 22 Syrian Druze have been killed in clashes with Sunni gunmen in the Damascus area.

Israel’s Druze community has been calling on the government to take stronger measures to protect their co-religionists in southern Syria.