Israel says it struck close to Syria palace over violence in Druze areas

Israel says its fighter jets bombed an space subsequent to the presidential palace in Syria’s capital, Damascus, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to guard the Druze non secular minority following days of lethal sectarian violence.

Netanyahu stated the strike was “clear message to the Syrian regime” that Israel would “not permit the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any menace to the Druze group”.

There was no quick response from the Syrian authorities.

Nevertheless, it rejected “overseas intervention” when Israel carried out strikes south of Damascus on Wednesday throughout clashes between Druze gunmen, safety forces and allied Sunni Islamist fighters.

The non secular chief of Syria’s Druze, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, has condemned the violence as an “unjustifiable genocidal marketing campaign” in opposition to his group and known as for intervention by “worldwide forces to keep up peace”.

The Syrian authorities has stated it has deployed safety forces to Druze areas to fight “outlaw teams” which it has accused of instigating the clashes.

International Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has additionally warned that “any name for exterior intervention, beneath any pretext or slogan, solely results in additional deterioration and division”.

In response to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, at the least 102 folks have been killed this week in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, a city within the southern outskirts of Damascus, the primarily Druze suburb of Jaramana, and the southern province of Suweida, which has a Druze majority.

It says that features 10 Druze civilians and 21 Druze fighters, in addition to one other 35 Druze fighters who had been shot lifeless in an “ambush” by safety forces whereas travelling from Suweida to Damascus on Wednesday. Thirty members of the Common Safety service and allied fighters have additionally been killed, it says.

The violence erupted in Jaramana on Monday night time after an audio clip of a person insulting the Prophet Muhammad circulated on social media and angered Sunni Muslims. It was attributed to a Druze cleric, however he denied any accountability. The inside ministry additionally stated a preliminary inquiry had cleared him.

The Druze religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its personal distinctive identification and beliefs. Half its roughly a million followers reside in Syria, the place they make up about 3% of the inhabitants, whereas there are smaller communities in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.

Syria’s transitional President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has promised to guard the nation’s many non secular and ethnic minorities since his Sunni Islamist group led the insurgent offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December after 13 years of devastating civil battle.

Nevertheless, the mass killings of tons of of civilians from Assad’s minority Alawite sect within the western coastal area in March, throughout clashes between the brand new safety forces and Assad loyalists, hardened fears amongst minority communities.

In February, Israel’s prime minister warned that he wouldn’t “tolerate any menace to the Druze group in southern Syria” from the nation’s new safety forces.

Netanyahu additionally demanded the entire demilitarisation of Suweida and two different southern provinces, saying Israel noticed Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a menace. HTS is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that’s nonetheless designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU and the UK.

The Israeli army has already carried out tons of of strikes throughout Syria to destroy the nation’s army belongings over the previous 4 months. It has additionally despatched troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, in addition to a number of adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon.