Israel launches air strike in Syria as sectarian clashes erupt
Netanyahu says militia set to attack Druze community was targeted near Damascus
Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that Israeli forces had struck what he said was an armed group preparing to attack a Druze community near Damascus, amid a wave of sectarian violence in Syria.
The Israeli attack followed several days of clashes between Sunni Muslims and Druze in southern Syria that have reportedly killed more than a dozen people and raised questions about how strong a grip the country’s new rulers have on their armed supporters.
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said in a joint statement with defence minister Israel Katz that the air strike in Sahnaya, a town south of the Syrian capital, had been a “warning operation” and that “a stern message was conveyed to the Syrian regime: Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze”.
The attack is Israel’s latest intervention in Syria since the regime of Bashar al-Assad was toppled last year by an offensive led by a Sunni Islamist group, which Israel regards as a threat.
Since then, Israel has carried out huge strikes on Syrian military infrastructure, seized a five-decade-old buffer zone, deployed forces into parts of southern Syria and repeatedly threatened a broad offensive if the Syrian state harms the Druze.
The Druze, an ethnically Arab religious minority present in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, are also increasingly viewed by the new Syrian regime’s supporters as proxies for Israel: in addition to threatening to intervene on behalf of the Druze, Israeli officials have denounced the new Syrian government as “a terrorist regime of radical Islam”.
Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, however, has not threatened Israel, and some Druze leaders — who fear being associated with Israeli aggression — say they do not welcome Israeli protection.
The Israeli strike came after Syrian state-aligned armed groups attacked Jaramana and Achrafiet Sahnaya, next to Sahnaya, on Tuesday and Wednesday. The attacks followed the distribution of a voice recording insulting the Muslim prophet Mohammed that was allegedly made by Druze religious leader Sheikh Marwan Kiwan.
Kiwan denied the recording was his, saying in a video that “whoever caused this strife is an evil man who wants to sow discord among all components of the Syrian people”. The interior ministry agreed with him after investigating the accusation, urging calm and promising to deliver justice.
But the damage was done: fighters aligned with the government attacked the two communities and posted videos of themselves firing heavy artillery. Residents said Israeli drones could be heard above the towns.
Hundreds of people have been killed in earlier clashes in Syria between pro-government forces and loyalists of the former regime that escalated into sectarian violence, drawing furious condemnation from the US. Many of those targeted were Alawites, members of a minority sect to which Assad belongs and who dominated the top ranks of the former regime’s security forces.
The interior ministry said it had dispatched members of its General Security forces to suppress this week’s violence, while the health ministry said the attacks were by “rogue elements”. According to death notices posted by local monitoring groups, at least six men and one woman from Jaramana were killed.
Later on Wednesday, the head of security in the province said an agreement had been struck with Jaramana’s notables, dictating a ceasefire and the handover of dead bodies. He too blamed rogue groups for targeting civilians and security personnel, and said 16 members of the interior ministry’s forces had been killed.
Locals in Achrafiet Sahnaya are accusing the government of complicity in the attacks, according to the local monitoring group, Sweida 24, that covers the Sweida province, a Druze heartland.
The fighters attacking the cities have been encouraged to “teach the Druze a lesson”, said Malik al-Abdeh, a London-based Syrian analyst.
Abdeh called the anger regarding the slur against Mohammed “just an excuse”, saying the immediate goal was to disarm Druze militias that represent a security threat to the government’s grip on power. The new administration has sought to bring the Druze, as well as Sunni armed factions, into the fold and integrate their fighters under the banner of a new army. But the Druze, as well as other minority factions, have so far resisted such efforts.
Sharaa is the former leader of the hardline Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led an offensive in December that unseated then-president Assad and ended his family’s five decades of brutal rule.
Western governments have emphasised that inclusion of minorities in governance is a prerequisite to the removal of sanctions, a step that is likely to be essential to the success of Sharaa’s plans to restore Syria’s devastated economy.