Interior minister urges PM to intervene in ongoing sectarian violence against Syrian Druze

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel appeals to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “urgent intervention” in Syria amid ongoing sectarian violence against the Druze population.

More than a dozen people were killed in the predominantly Druze town of Jaramana near the Syrian capital on Tuesday, in clashes said to have been sparked by a purported recording of a Druze man cursing the Prophet Muhammad that angered Sunni gunmen. On Wednesday, the sectarian violence spread to the nearby town of Sahnaya.

In a letter to the premier, Arbel says that he believes footage emerging from Syria indicates “an immediate and tangible danger to the lives of the Druze community in Syria.”

“I want to ask for your immediate intervention and instruction for all relevant parties to carry out necessary and immediate action to stop the massacre, through both diplomatic and military means,” writes the Shas lawmaker.

“IDF officers and brave fighters from the Druze community were among the first to stand up and defend the State of Israel on October 7, and in all of Israel’s wars,” Arbell recalls. “Right now, their families are in immediate and tangible danger.”

“The State of Israel must not stand idly by in the face of the brutal massacre currently taking place,” he adds.

Israel has warned the Syrian government that it will not tolerate violence against the Druze community. On Wednesday, it carried out a drone strike on an armed group in Sahnaya, which it said was planning to attack the town’s Druze population.

Israel has also taken in three Syrian Druze for treatment after they were apparently wounded during the violence. They are being treated at Ziv Hospital in Safed.