“Israel forsvarer drusere i Syrien”

Det viser Hans Rustad her

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Drusserne i Syrien er kommet under angreb i de seneste dage. Grupper med religiøs uafhængighed, som er i stand til at forsvare sig selv, kommer under angreb fra de styrker, regimet er afhængig af. Nu har Israel bombet væbnede grupper, som har angrebet druserne i Syrien.

Netanyahu fortalte på en pressekonference, at flyene bombede en tom bygning i byen Sahnaya. Terroristerne var samlet i den ene del af bygningen, og israelerne bombede den anden halvdel. Det var en advarsel, og militsgruppen trak sig derefter tilbage.

“Israel vil ikke tillade angreb på druserne i Syrien på grund af vores dybe engagement i vores drusiske brødre i Israel, som deler dybe historiske og familiære bånd med deres brødre i Syrien,” sagde Netanyahu.

Det er første gang, Israel har grebet ind til fordel for en folkegruppe i et naboland på denne måde.

Druserne er en vigtig gruppe i Israel, og Netanyahu viser, at Israel ikke vil opgive deres slægtninge i Syrien.

Druserne er klogt bevæbnet. De blev angrebet i Damaskus-forstaden Jarman for et par dage siden. Nu ved de, at de ikke er alene, og det vil styrke deres moral. Måske vil det også give islamisterne noget at tænke over.

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The Israeli military carried out a drone strike on an armed group preparing to attack a Druze community in Sahnaya, on the outskirts of Damascus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The “warning operation” targeted “a gathering of an extremist group that was preparing to continue its attack on the Druze population” in Syria, said the premier and defense minister.

In a separate statement, the Israel Defense Forces said the drone strike targeted operatives “after they had attacked Druze civilians.”

One member of Syria’s new security forces was killed as a result, a source from the Syrian interior ministry told Reuters. The source disputed Israel’s claim, saying that Syrian security forces were looking to put an end to clashes between armed groups operating outside state control.

Netanyahu and Katz also conveyed a “serious message” to Syria’s leadership: “Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze.”

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The strike was carried out with a Hermes 450 UAV, used by the Israeli Air Force as a surveillance and armed drone, which launched a missile at a building where the armed men were identified, according to military sources.

Following an assessment on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir instructed the military to target Syrian government sites “if the violence against the Druze does not stop.”

“The IDF is monitoring developments in Syria. The forces are deployed with readiness for defense and various scenarios,” the military added.

The strike came after more than a dozen people were killed in the predominantly Druze town of Jaramana near the Syrian capital on Tuesday, in clashes sparked by a purported recording of a Druze man cursing the Prophet Mohammad that angered Sunni gunmen, rescuers and security sources said.

Later on Wednesday, three Syrian Druze civilians, who were apparently wounded in the sectarian violence, were evacuated by the Israeli military to a hospital in Israel.

The IDF said the three arrived at the Israeli border and were initially taken to the Nafah base in the Golan Heights. They were then taken to Ziv Hospital in Safed for treatment.

The fighting marked the latest episode of deadly sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minorities have been swelling since Islamist-led rebels ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad from power in December, installing their own government and security forces.

Members of Syria’s Druze community wave flags and chant slogans during the funeral of seven people killed during overnight clashes with Syrian security forces, in Damascus, on April 30, 2025. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

“On Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers,” read the Israeli statement, “when we honor the great contribution of the Druze community to Israel’s security and the memory of the Druze fallen who risked their lives to defend Israel, we see great importance in fulfilling our commitment to the Druze community in Israel and to protecting their brothers in Syria.”

“Israel will not allow harm to the Druze community in Syria, out of a deep commitment to our Druze brothers in Israel,” Netanyahu and Katz said, “who are connected by family and historical ties to their Druze brothers in Syria.”

The statement came as dozens of Druze blocked roads in northern Israel, calling on Jerusalem to intervene in Damascus amid the sectarian clashes.

Druze men demonstrate in solidarity with the Syrian Druze community on the Israeli side of the border barrier in the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on April 30, 2025. (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

The Druze, who number around 140,000 in Israel, are an Arabic-speaking minority population distinct from the mainstream Muslim and Christian Arabic communities.

Israeli-Druze bond ‘transcends borders’

Israel has repeatedly said it is willing to intervene in Syria to protect the Druze, and during speeches at Memorial Day ceremonies honoring fallen IDF soldiers on Wednesday, Israeli ministers asserted Jerusalem’s commitment to the Druze both domestically and abroad.

Members of the Druze community attend a funeral in the Druze village of Maghar, on September 20, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

Energy Minister Eli Cohen, speaking at the cemetery of the Druze community in Maghar, said: “The alliance between the Jewish people and the Druze community transcends borders. Israel will not sit idly by if there is an attempt to harm Druze beyond the country’s borders.”

Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush told a crowd gathered in the Hurfeish military cemetery that the government knows about the “terrible situation in Syria,” and “we will make sure that nobody hurts the Druze in Syria.”

The Druze, said Porush, “give so much to the nation. We know that the government can do more to strengthen the Druze community.”

“The covenant between the Druze and Jews is a covenant of life,” he added.

Sheikh Muafak Tarif, the head of the minority’s community in Israel, called on Israel to “act immediately to prevent a massacre in Druze communities near Damascus.”

Sectarian violence in Syria

Druze elders met with security forces following the clashes on Tuesday in a bid to prevent further escalation, a Syrian security source said.

People gather for a mass demonstration in Syria’s northeastern city of Qamishli on March 11, 2025, protesting against a recent wave of sectarian violence targeting Syria’s Alawite minority in the west of the country along the Mediterranean sea coast. (Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

“What was said by a few individuals against our Prophet represents only them and is rejected by us and all of society,” Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said of the recording cursing the Prophet Muhammad, and called on both communities to reject efforts to fuel sectarian divisions.

Syrian security forces deployed near Damascus to “restore security,” state media reported later on Wednesday.

Security official Hussam al-Tahan told state news agency SANA that forces completed a “security operation” in the Sahnaya area and that General Security personnel deployed there to “restore security and stability.”

Syria’s foreign ministry also issued a statement, saying that the government “affirms its unwavering commitment to protect all components of the Syrian people… including the children of the honorable Druze community,” while also expressing its rejection of “foreign interference.”

Fears amid Syrian minority groups have spiked after the killings of hundreds of Alawites in March in apparent revenge for an attack by Assad loyalists.

Since new president Ahmed al-Sharaa took over, hundreds of Alawites have been forcibly evicted from their private homes in Damascus by the security forces, Reuters revealed on Wednesday, citing Syrian officials, Alawite leaders, and others familiar with the matter, adding that Syria’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the GSS, and Sharaa’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war carved the country into various zones of influence, with the Druze – who practice a religion originally derived from Islam – arming themselves to defend their own towns.

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

Community leaders blamed the government for failing to prevent Tuesday’s attack and warned that it would bear responsibility for any future repercussions.

This grab from a handout video statement released by the Syrian Presidency shows Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa speaking in Damascus on March 9, 2025. (Photo by Syrian Presidency / AFP)

Since December, Israel has carried out extensive airstrikes on military bases in Syria that belonged to the previous regime and moved forces into a UN-monitored demilitarized zone on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

The IDF describes its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Katz said that troops will remain deployed in the area “indefinitely.”

Diana Bletter and agencies contributed to this report.

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