Israel has carried out airstrikes close to the presidential palace in the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday night.
It is the second time in a matter of days that Israeli planes have struck Syria and the country’s prime minister and defence minister said it was a warning to the Syrian regime following clashes in recent days with the minority Druze community south of the city.
“This is a message to the Syrian regime,” said Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz in a joint statement. “We will not allow a movement of forces south of Damascus and any danger to the Druze community.”
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Israel has not revealed what it targeted, and the Syrian government is yet to comment following the strikes.
Clashes have erupted between regime forces, Islamist factions, and Druze militants in Syria over the past few days, underscoring the fragility of the relatively new governing regime in Damascus. Dozens have been reported killed.
However, an agreement announced on Thursday night between some Druze leaders and the regime is giving hope that some calm can be restored, and senior members of the Syrian Druze community have expressed a willingness to cooperate with the Syrian regime, something they had previously been reluctant to do.
Syrian security forces in the Druze town of Sahnaya on Thursday. Pic: Reuters
Israel’s foreign minister called on the international community to protect the minority Druze in Syria on Thursday, and roads were blocked in northern Israel by Druze protesters calling on the Israeli government to intervene.
The Druze are a small secretive sect with connections to Islam with groups in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. It’s because of this link with Israel that the country’s government says it has reason to intervene.
Syria’s President Ahmed al Sharaa
Syria’s President Ahmed al Sharaa, who was an al Qaeda commander, has promised to unite Syria, but there have been repeated outbreaks of sectarian violence, threatening the country’s stability and calling into question whether the new government is inclusive.
Israel has carried out almost 800 strikes in Syria and hundreds of ground incursions since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December, and Israel Defence Forces troops remain in a new ‘buffer-zone’ extending out from the occupied Golan Heights.
Israel has repeatedly offered to protect the Druze community in Syria, many of whom live in villages close to the Israeli border. This week, two Druze members were evacuated to Israel for medical treatment.