Israel launched an attack on the Syrian capital

^{Photo: Reuters}
Israeli fighter jets have carried out airstrikes in areas around the presidential palace in Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were carried out to protect the Druze religious minority, who have been the victims of brutal sectarian violence in Syria in recent days.

There were no reports of casualties in the strikes in the Syrian capital, but Netanyahu said the strikes were a “clear signal to the Syrian regime” that Israel “will not allow any deployment of forces south of Damascus or any threats to the Druze community.”

The Syrian government has not yet commented on the strike.

But Damascus reacted to Israeli airstrikes in the south of the Syrian capital on Wednesday, amid clashes between armed Druze and the country's security forces and loyalist militants. Syrian officials have called the strikes foreign interference in the country's internal affairs and warned that they would not tolerate them.

Damascus says the Syrian government reached an agreement with Druze leaders late on May 1. But Israel is concerned about the escalation of violence against the Druze ethnic minority, with more than 100 members of the group killed in just one week.

Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the religious leader of the Syrian Druze, has condemned the violence as an "unjustifiable campaign of genocide" against his community and called for "international intervention to preserve peace."

The Syrian government announced that security forces had been deployed to Druze areas to combat “criminal groups” “accused of fomenting clashes.”

The country’s Foreign Minister, Assad al-Shaybah, warned that “any call for external intervention under any pretext or slogan will only lead to further deterioration and disintegration in the future.”

However, Israel’s prime minister warned in February that the country’s new government would not turn a blind eye to “any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria.”

What happened?

^{Israeli Druze have arrived at the Israeli-Syrian border in the occupied Golan Heights to support their Syrian tribesmen.}
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 102 people were killed this week in the southern suburbs of Damascus, mainly in the Druze-dominated suburbs of Jaraman, and in the southern, mainly Druze-populated province of Suwayda.

Of these, about 70 were Druze, while the rest were security personnel killed in armed resistance by the Druze.

The violence in Jeram began on Monday evening after an audio recording of a man insulting the Prophet circulated on social media. He was believed to be a Druze cleric, but he denied any involvement in the recording.

The Syrian Interior Ministry also said that initial investigations had found no connection between him and the clip.

The head of Syria's transitional government, interim President Ahmed al-Shar'a, has vowed to protect the country's numerous religious and ethnic minorities.

But the Druze are not the first group to be targeted.

Al-Shar'a has previously said that his goal is to integrate the scattered jihadist groups still operating throughout the country into the Syrian National Security Forces, which would help Damascus control the hotbeds of violence.

Ethnic Cleansing in the New Syria and Israel's Position

A relatively large Druze community lives in northern Israel. These are Arabs who follow the Druze religion, a branch of the Shiite Ismaili sect.

Israeli Druze have always been friendly to the state of Israel, many of whom even volunteer to serve in the Israeli army.

There are about a million Druze in the world, about half of whom live in Syria, where they make up about 3 percent of the population. There is also a Druze community in Lebanon.

This week, after reports began to emerge that Syrian Druze were being persecuted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to protect them.

This is not the first flare-up of inter-ethnic and inter-confessional hostility in the new Syria. In March of this year, the Alawites, who belong to Syrian President Bashar Assad, were also subjected to mass killings and looting.

At that time, the massacre lasted for several weeks. More than a thousand Alawites were killed, sometimes with their entire families, and thousands more fled to neighboring Lebanon.

Israel is demanding the complete demilitarization of Suwayda and two other southern provinces, citing the threat to its security from the new Syrian government, formed by the former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Since the overthrow of the Assad regime, Israeli aircraft have carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria, targeting military facilities and weapons depots. Read 'Zamin' on Telegram!