Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Thursday that Israel would respond forcefully if the Syrian government fails to protect the Druze minority, following two days of deadly clashes near Damascus.
In a statement, Gallant said:
“If attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fails to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force.”
The Israeli army announced it had transported injured Syrian Druze for medical treatment. It confirmed that it is “deployed in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent hostile forces from entering the Druze village areas.”
Over two days of sectarian-based clashes in Syria, more than 100 people were killed and dozens wounded—most of them Druze fighters—according to a new toll released Thursday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
This came just hours after a “preliminary ceasefire agreement” was reached in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya in the Damascus countryside, according to the Syrian news agency SANA. The agreement was made in the presence of the governors of Damascus Countryside, Sweida, and Quneitra, along with community elders and social figures.
Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the top spiritual leaders of the Syrian Druze, described the events in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an “unjustified extermination attack” against “peaceful residents in their homes.” He said the “systematic mass killing” requires “an immediate intervention by international forces to preserve peace and stop these crimes immediately.”
He added:
“We no longer trust an entity that claims to be a government… A government does not kill its people using extremist gangs affiliated with it, and after the massacres, claim they were rogue elements.”
He emphasized that the government must “protect its people.”
He reiterated that the “systematic mass killing” demands an urgent international response to stop the violence and ensure peacekeeping efforts.
Al-Hijri, one of the three top Druze religious figures in Syria, made his remarks a day after Syrian authorities announced the deployment of their forces in Sahnaya to maintain security, blaming “outlaw groups” for the clashes after they allegedly attacked security forces.
Syrian Foreign Minister Assad Al-Shibani stated:
“National unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or progress, and rejecting sectarianism, strife, and separatist calls is not merely a political choice, but a national and societal necessity to protect our diverse social and historical fabric.”
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