Sa’ar: World must intervene in Syria to defend Druze from regime’s ‘terrorist gangs’
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel also appeals to Netanyahu for ‘immediate intervention’ on behalf of minority, after two days of sectarian violence in Syria said to kill 73
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Thursday urged the international community to protect Syria’s Druze minority from the country’s new leadership, after 73 people were said to have been killed during two days of sectarian clashes in largely Druze areas.
Speaking at an Independence Day reception for foreign diplomats at the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem, Sa’ar said the international community must “fulfill its duty to protect minorities in Syria, and specifically the Druze, from the regime and its terrorist gangs, and not condone the grave events that are taking place there.”
Citing distrust in Syria’s new leadership, Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri on Thursday also urged immediate intervention by “international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes,” which he described as an “unjustifiable genocidal campaign.”
Hijri said he no longer trusts Syrian de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s administration, “an entity pretending to be a government,” because a legitimate government “does not kill its people through its extremist militias… and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres.” Sharaa’s government has vowed to protect minorities and rejected calls for international interference.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Interior Minister Moshe Arbel appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday for immediate Israeli intervention in Syria to defend the Druze from “tangible danger” following the violence in the Damascus suburbs of Jaramana and Sahnaya.
Israel, home to about 150,000 Druze, has warned Sharaa’s Islamist government that Jerusalem would not tolerate violence against the Syrian Druze community. On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a drone strike on Sahnaya, targeting an armed group that Israel said was planning an attack on the town’s Druze population.
Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated the warning on Thursday in a social media post that addressed Sharaa: “I again warn the head of the Syrian regime… If the harm to the Druze in Syria does not stop, we will respond very harshly.”
In a letter to Netanyahu, Arbel said he believes footage emerging from Syria indicated there was “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,” wrote the Shas lawmaker, adding that “IDF officers and brave fighters from the Druze community were among the first to stand up and defend the State of Israel” after the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, “and in all of Israel’s wars.”
“Right now, their families are in immediate and tangible danger,” wrote Arbel. “The State of Israel must not stand idly by in the face of the brutal massacre currently taking place.”
His comments follow fighting between Syrian security forces, allied fighters, and local Druze groups, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Israel took in three Syrian Druze for treatment on Wednesday and another two on Thursday, after they were apparently wounded in the violence. They are being treated at Ziv Hospital in Safed.
Troops are “deployed to southern Syria and prepared to prevent hostile forces from entering the area and Druze villages,” the IDF said Thursday, adding that it “continues to monitor developments, while maintaining readiness for defense and different scenarios.”
According to SOHR, the death toll from Jaramana and Sahnaya includes 30 members of Syria’s security forces, 15 fighters from the Druze minority and one civilian.
SOHR added that in the southern Suweyda province, which also has a large Druze population, 27 Druze gunmen were killed, 23 of them in an “ambush” on the Suweyda-Damascus road on Wednesday.
The fighters were killed in an attack “carried out by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defense and gunmen associated with them,” the monitor told AFP.
The Britain-based SOHR, the source of whose funding is unclear, is run by a single person and has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.
Syria vows to protect minorities, rejects foreign interference
The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous. AFP was unable to confirm the recording’s authenticity.
A truce agreement was reached on Wednesday in Jaramana and Sahnaya following meetings between Druze representatives and government officials.
Syrian authorities announced the deployment of their forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, accusing “outlaw groups” of instigating the clashes.
In March, security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites, according to the Observatory. It was the worst bloodshed in Syria since the December ouster of longtime Iran-backed ruler Bashar al-Assad, who is from the minority community.
The clashes pose a serious challenge to Sharaa, the leader of a former al-Qaeda affiliate that spearheaded Assad’s ouster. Syria’s new authorities have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists within their ranks.
In a statement on Wednesday, Syria’s foreign ministry vowed to “protect all components” of society, including the Druze, and expressed its rejection of “foreign interference.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shaibani reiterated on Thursday his country’s rejection of any demands for international intervention, saying on social media platform X that “national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival.”
“Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he added.
Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, an ally of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, on Wednesday also urged Syria’s Druze to “reject Israeli interference,” while Syria’s top Muslim cleric Osama al-Rifai warned that “if strife ignites in our country… all of us will lose.”
Israel, which last week let in hundreds of Syrian Druze clerics for a two-day pilgrimage, has expressed distrust of Sharaa, and launched hundreds of strikes on military sites in Syria since Assad’s downfall. Following the ouster, Israel also sent troops into the demilitarized zone on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.