Israel says it carried out a warning strike in defense of Syria's Druze community

Israel said it carried out a warning strike against an extremist group that was preparing to attack a Druze community in Syria, following through on its pledge to protect the minority group as violence spread Wednesday in Druze areas near Damascus.

It was the latest Israeli strike in Syria, where Israel views the Sunni Islamists who seized power in December as a rising threat at its border and has sent troops into the southwest, vowing to protect the Druze minority.

In a joint statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strike had hit the “extremist group” as it prepared to continue an attack on Druze in the Syrian town of Sahnaya, just south of Damascus.

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“At the same time, a message was passed on to the Syrian regime — Israel expects it to act in order to prevent harm to the Druze,” they said.

A spokesman for Syria’s interior ministry, speaking to Reuters from Sahnaya, said he had no indication that an attack had taken place.

Sectarian violence erupted in the predominantly Druze area of Jaramana, near Damascus, on Tuesday between Druze and Sunni Muslim gunmen. More than a dozen people were reported killed.

The violence spread to Sahnaya, another predominantly Druze area near the capital, on Wednesday. The Syrian health ministry said that 11 people were killed and others wounded there after “outlaw groups” targeted civilians and members of the state’s General Security Service in Sahnaya.

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The violence was sparked by a voice recording cursing the Prophet Mohammad and which Sunni militants believed was made by a member of the Arab Druze minority. The Syrian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday it was investigating the origin of the recording and called for calm.

The Druze adhere to a faith that is an offshoot of Islam and have followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Residents of Sahnaya reported intense street fighting throughout Wednesday. “We’re in extreme panic and fear because of the indiscriminate shelling, which is forcing most of us to stay totally shuttered inside our homes,” said Elias Hanna, who lives on the edge of Sahnaya.

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“We’re worried that the massacres of the coast will repeat themselves near Sahnaya against the Druze,” he said.

Syria’s interior ministry, quoted by the state news agency, said it would strike anyone seeking to destabilize Syria “with an iron fist”.

The new Islamist-led leadership in Damascus has called for all arms to fall under their authority, but Druze fighters have resisted, saying Damascus has failed to guarantee their protection from hostile militants.

The Israeli government reiterated its pledge to defend Syrian Druze in March after the killing of hundreds of minority Alawites in western Syria — sectarian bloodshed that was sparked by deadly attacks on government security forces and blamed by the Islamist authorities on forces loyal to ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.

The violence has hardened fears among Syrian minorities about the governing Islamists, despite interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s repeated promises of inclusive governance.

Israel has a small Druze community and there are also some 24,000 Druze living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day war. Israel annexed the territory in 1981, a move that has not been recognized by most countries or the United Nations.

The spiritual leader of Druze in Israel, Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, said in a statement late on Tuesday that he was “closely monitoring” developments in Syria and had discussed them with Israel’s defense minister.

Israel has lobbied the United States for months to keep Syria weak and decentralized. Israel struck Syria regularly when it was governed by Assad, seeking to curb the role of his ally Iran.