Israeli jets strike near Syrian presidential palace after attacks warning
Israel’s air force has struck near Syria’s presidential palace after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.
The strike came after days of clashes between pro-Syrian government gunmen and fighters who belong to the Druze minority sect near the capital, Damascus.
The clashes left dozens of people dead or wounded.
On Thursday, Syria’s Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri harshly criticised Syria’s government for what he called an “unjustified genocidal attack” on the minority community.
Early on Friday, the Druze religious leadership said the community is part of Syria and refuses to break away from the country, adding that the role of the state should be activated in the southern province of Sweida and authorities should be in control of the Sweida-Damascus highway.
“We confirm our commitment to a country that includes all Syrians, a nation that is free of strife,” the statement said.
As part of the deal, forces from the defence ministry will deploy around Jaramana without going inside.
The Israeli army said that fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the Palace of President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz said the strike was a message to Syrian leaders.
“This is a clear message to the Syrian regime. We will not allow the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community,” said the joint statement.
Over the past two days the Israeli military said it had evacuated Syrian Druze who were injured in the fighting.
The Israeli army said a soldier was killed and three were lightly injured in an accident in the Golan Heights. An army statement added that the soldiers were evacuated to receive medical treatment and that the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
The clashes broke out around midnight on Monday after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man criticising Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Syria’s information ministry said 11 members of the country’s security forces were killed in two separate attacks, while the UK-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 56 people in Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana were killed in clashes, among them local gunmen and security forces.
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shia Islam. More than half of the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria, largely in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus.
Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in 1981.