Israel struck near the Presidential Palace in Damascus. Netanyahu: We will not allow any threat to the Druze community
Benjamin Netanyahu, Photo: Jini / Xinhua News / Profimedia
Israel attacked a target near the presidential palace in the Syrian capital Damasc, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday morning, reaffirming his promise to protect the members of the Druze community.
It is the next day in a row when Israel strikes Syria, saying that it fulfills its commitment to defend the minority group that has been involved in religious violence against armed Sunns this week, notes Reuters.
Druzii adhere to a faith that is a branch of Islam and have followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
The blows reflect the deep distrust of Israel to the Sunni Islamists who took down the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, representing a new challenge for the efforts of the interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa to establish control over this fragmented nation.
“Israel hit last night near the Presidential Palace in Damascus,” Netanyahu said in a statement also signed by the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz.
“This is a clear message for the Syrian regime: we will not allow forces (Syrian) to take place south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community,” he added.
The Israeli army also announced that it had hit a “adjacent to the area of Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in Damascus”, without specifying the target. Syrian authorities did not make any statement immediately after the attack.
Since the removal of Assad in December, Israel has occupied land in the southwest, promised to protect the Druzii, pressed Washington to maintain the neighboring neighbor and threw much of the heavy army of the Syrian army after the removal of Assad.
Sharaa, who was an Al-Qaeda commander before giving up the links in 2016, repeatedly promised that he would govern Syria in an inclusive way. But incidents of religious violence, including the killing of hundreds of Alawiti in March, strengthened the fears of minority groups towards now dominant Islamists.
The religious violence this week began on Tuesday with clashes between the Druzi and armed in the predominant area of Jaraman, triggered by a vocal recording in which the Prophet Muhammad was sworn and which the Sunni militants suspected that it was made by a Druz.
More than a dozen people were killed on Tuesday, before violence expands on Wednesday in the city of Sahnaya on the outskirts of Damascus, which has a majority population.
