Illustrative image. (Syrian Arab News Agency)
On May 1, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued another warning to Syria’s Islamist-led interim government against harming the Druze religious minority.
“I again warn the head of the Syrian regime, Jolani: If the harm to the Druze in Syria does not stop, we will respond very harshly,” he says in a statement, referring to the country’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The last few days saw deadly sectarian-field clashes between Druze fighters and government forces close to the capital, Damascus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the clashes claimed the lives of 17 people in the town of Jaramana on April 28 and 22 people in nearby town of Sahnaya on April 29 and 30. Separately on April 30, 15 Druze fighters were killed in an ambush while heading from al-Suwayda governorate to Damascus, according to the London-based monitoring group.
Citing historic relations with Israel’s own Druze community, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) intervened in support of Druze fighters in Sahnaya, launching a few strikes.
Nevertheless, Sahnaya fell into the hands of government forces who amassed near the town and Jaramana after an audio clip of a Druze man insulting the Muslim Prophet Mohamad surfaced online earlier in the week. Later, reports of mass arrests, beatings and summary executions emerged from Sahnaya.
One of the people executed was identified as the mayor of the city who was engaged in talks to de-escalate with the government.
Katz’s new threat came just hours after the spiritual leader of the Druze in Syria Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri condemned what he called a “genocidal campaign” by the government against his people, calling for “international protection” for all minorities in the country.
Separately, the IDF announced that two Syrian Druze, who were apparently wounded during the clashes near Damascus, were evacuated by its troops to a hospital in Israel.
The two were taken to Ziv Hospital in the city Safed, where three other wounded Syrian Druze were taken by the military a day earlier.
The military said in a statement that its troops are “deployed to southern Syria and prepared to prevent hostile forces from entering the area and Druze villages.”
“The IDF continues to monitor the developments, while maintaining readiness for defense and different scenarios,” it added.
Despite Israel’s threats, Syrian media reported on May 1 that the government was pressuring Druze fighters in Jaramana to hand over their weapons similar to Sahnyah. Videos posted to social networks also showed large convoys heading in the direction of al-Suwayda, the heartland of Druze.
All in all, a new round of clashes between government forces and Druze fighters appear to be imminent. The government has so far shown no willingness to engage in any positive way with the group or any other minorities. It remains unclear if Israel will provide serious support to the Druze in any upcoming battle.
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isreal cares nothing for the druze , never has . but hasbara agents know genocide of druze christians is useful international propaganda . so they act like good guys while the continued destruction of syria is the only aim of the greater israel project . why else would the idf control all south of damascus ?
that’s right, as they care. they just want to expand conflict with this. wahhabi scum is just expandable for them. i swear i just knew that it will be just like this.
israel will push russian cowards out of syria…hehehehehee
it would be our all dream if shlomos, who are such bitches, gays and cowards unable to defeat even a few poorly armed hamas fighters in gaza since 1,5 years, would be so stupid to confront directly russia, than russia could solve the shlomo problem forever.
heheheh
the traitors of communism will get the uyghurs and chechens. then the traitorous russians and chinese will pay for this betrayal of the communist the ass regime. who protected religious minorities, because mr. hafez al-assad himself was a religious minority. his son the ass went to school in london and the ass wife went to an economics school in london and they didn’t teach her anything there.
any stupid dictatorship like the ass regime is better and more civilized than the religious al qaeda and taliban dictatorship.
genocidal psychopaths including jolani should be bombed to hell.
russian and chinese end is much closer than they think, their women are no longer bearing children because they know that their countries support jolani.
jolani is a criminal and for anyone who supports him, i suggest they reread the story of the frog and the scorpion.
defence minister katz is one of the jewish warcriminals the world would love to see dancing a jig at the end of a rope. together with the hitler inspired jew netanyahu!
amerikunt poop on sidewalk terrified of pygmys they. need israelis to fight for them–i so insecure inferior anxious i go free clinic where taliban therapist let me swallow his jizz
not all of it, europe will be split in half again and the iron curtain will be drawn again. and i, along with the poles, slovaks, and all the rest of eastern europe, will be on the right side. western europe will have countries organized like nagorno-karabakh. but the uyghurs and chechens will run out of food in syria one day, and then the chickens will return home to roost. not only in europe, but also in russia and china it will be beautiful as it is beautiful in pakistan and afghanistan.
europe is not one country, europe is a bunch of countries and in case of serious problems, poland, hungary, czech republic, slovakia, etc. will exile terrorists out of their countries…
if their intentions were truly good, they would have bombed the palace and not 400 meters away. just another traitor, just like putler, the ass, trump and all of europe, both of all bribed by qatar.
why do business schools in croatia teach subjects such as ergonomics, business communication, workplace well-being, and occupational safety, while lecturers tell fables such as the one about the frog and the scorpion and comment on news about fallen tycoons? and why do schools that have the same international standing as the school mrs. the ass attended in london teach completely different subjects?
why do medical schools in the us and uk have subjects like literature, while in croatia and poland they only have more psychology, biology, and chemistry, but no literature at all?
whi the literature is concentrated in business schools and, of course, there is also human resource development?
it is normal for business schools to teach human resource development and workplace well-being. but why do medical schools in the uk and the us teach literature?
that’s probably why bashar al-assad was a complete idiot and a traitor to his own people.
in trieste, in elementary school we take a lesson about the frog and the scorpion.
the wiley zionist government is not known for telling the truth. no reason to believe what it is saying here either.
israel should bomb these monsters to hell.