Golan Druze sentenced for trying to stop ambulance carrying wounded Syrian

Two men found guilty of intentional endangerment of human life for their parts in 2015 incident in which ambulance was attacked

The Haifa District Court sentenced two men from the country’s Druze minority on Sunday for a 2015 incident in which they attempted to prevent the transportation of a wounded Syrian from the Golan Heights to a hospital.

The two were part of a group of Druze men who chased after an IDF military ambulance in June 2015 and tried to prevent it from delivering the wounded Syrian for medical care.

Kamal Amar, a resident of the northern town of Hurfeish, was sentenced to 12 months in prison on charges of intentional endangerment of human life.

Yousef Sharif, also of Hurfeish, was sentenced to 10 months’ probation and a fine of NIS 10,000 for his part in the incident.

In the early-morning attack, rioters threw rocks at the ambulance as it passed by Hurfeish. The vehicle was then stopped outside the town and surrounded by several residents, who demanded they be allowed to inspect the passengers, police said.

Later that day, a crowd of Druze attacked a second ambulance, this one as it passed through Majdal Shams, blocking the vehicle and pulling out the wounded Syrians.

Police said one of the Syrians died of his wounds and the second man was in critical condition. Two Israeli soldiers were also lightly injured in the incident, apparently while trying to protect the wounded Syrians, who had suffered light to moderate injuries, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

Golan Druze have protested Israel’s aid to Syrian wounded who are brought to the border, noting that some of the wounded Israel had taken in at the border were themselves part of the forces fighting against the Druze communities in southern Syria.

Israel routinely takes in and treats Syrians injured in the civil war, and the IDF has set up a field hospital along the border, though it transports more serious cases to hospitals elsewhere in the country.

While Druze living in Israel speak Hebrew and many serve in the IDF, residents of the four Druze villages in the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, remain outwardly loyal to the Syrian regime and have mostly refused to accept Israeli citizenship.

The Druze are an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Officials say there are 110,000 of them in northern Israel and another 20,000 on the Golan Heights.