Israel launches Syria strike to defend Druze communities as U.S. brokers ceasefire

Israel has conducted multiple airstrikes on Syrian military positions, citing the protection of Druze communities in Syria as its rationale.

The attacks come as the U.S. announced a ceasefire in Syria.

Syrian security forces were accused of participating in massacres against Druze this week, intervening on behalf of Sunni Arabs in a sectarian feud against the Druze, despite warnings by Israel that the attacks would draw a response.

Israel subsequently attacked the Syrian defense ministry in its capital of Damascus, striking near the presidential palace. Israel also vowed to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria, Reuters reported.

“We are acting with determination to prevent hostile elements from establishing a presence beyond the border, to protect the citizens of the State of Israel, and to prevent the harming of Druze civilians,” said Israeli Defense Force Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.

Nearly 1,000 Israeli Druze had crossed the border into Syria in response to the attacks, according to earlier reports.

“There are thousands near the border with Israel,” said one Israeli Druze who crossed the border, but who refused to say whether he was armed. “Like I said, just as a Jew has the right to defend another Jew in Argentina or the U.S., we are here to defend the Druze.”

The strikes came against the backdrop of demonstrations by Israeli Druze for action against the Syrian government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports 516 people were killed in the Druze-controlled area of As-Suwayda this week, including 83 executed by Syrian government forces. Among the executed were four women and an elderly man. One local journalist said he entered a house and found a family of 12 slaughtered, Reuters reported.

Immediately after the Israeli strikes, the Syrian president announced a ceasefire against the Druze.  

For Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the sectarian violence and loss of control of army forces is the first challenge to his rule since forming the government led by Islamic militias. Al-Sharaa vowed to protect Syria’s Druze communities in the future.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may not give him another chance.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

“We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria,” Rubio wrote on social media. “We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight. This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made, and this is what we fully expect them to do.”

Netanyahu warned Syrian military forces not to go south of Damascus again, as Israel is determined to demilitarize Syria south of the capital all the way to Israel’s border.

“We will not allow military forces to descend south of Damascus, we will not allow the Druze to be harmed in Jebel Druze,” the prime minister said. “[The Syrian regime] sent an army south of Damascus, into the area that should be demilitarized, and it began to massacre the Druze. We could not accept this in any way.”

The Druze communities are made up of up to 1 million Arabs who share a mix of esoteric beliefs drawing on Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Greek philosophy, who live in southern Syria, Israel and Lebanon. Those living in Israel identify with the Jewish state and often serve in the Israeli military.