The Israeli army “Is deployed in southern Syria and is ready to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the Druzes villages zone”she pointed out in a statement on Saturday May 3, without further details on the number of troops or the extent of this deployment. The army adds that on the night of Friday to Saturday, “Five Syrian Druze citizens have been evacuated to receive medical care in Israel (…) After being injured in Syrian territory “.
According to a local Druze official in the province of Soueida, “There was no deployment of Israeli soldiers” In this area, Bastion of the Druze minority in southern Syria. “Their presence would be limited to the province of Quneitra, where they established positions after the fall of the al-Assad regime” In December 2024, he told the France-Presse agency (AFP).
This announcement comes after Israel struck military sites in Syria on the night of Friday to Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). “More than twenty Israeli strikes have targeted warehouses and military sites in Deraa, near Damascus and in the Hama and Latquié regions”according to the OSDH, which has a large network of sources in the country at war.
Sana, the official Syrian agency, said that“A civil has[vait] been killed in the Israeli aviation strikes around Harasta, near Damascus ”. Journalists from the Agency France-Presse (AFP) present in the Syrian capital have heard the roar of planes and several detonations.
“Dangerous escalation”
Since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel, who considers with distrust of the new Syrian authorities, has led hundreds of attacks on military sites in Syria, saying that he wants to prevent weapons to fall into the hands of the new authorities that he describes as “Jihadists”. Israel also sent troops to a demilitarized area on the Golan Plateau.
At dawn Friday, Israel announced that he had bombed near the presidential palace of Ahmed al-Charaa, as a warning against any damage to the Druze minority in Syria. What the Syrian presidency described as “Dangerous escalation” was also sentenced by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.
At the start of the week, denominational violence between armed groups linked to Syrian power and Druzes fighters left more than a hundred dead near Damascus and in the south, neighboring Israel, according to the OSDH.
“It is a clear message sent to the Syrian regime. We will not allow forces [syriennes] are dispatched south of Damascus or threaten any way the Druze community “said Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and his Minister of Defense, Israel Katz.
Saturday, in a press release, Geir Pedersen, the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, asked “Let these attacks cease immediately and that Israel ceases to endanger Syrian civilians and respects international law as well as sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity and independence of Syria”. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Germany had also denounced the Israeli strikes on the country.
The memorable world
Test your general culture with the writing of the “world”
Test your general culture with the writing of the “world”
Discover
Israel had threatened to act “Force” If Damascus did not protect the Druzes on its territory. Since the coming to power in Syria, on December 8, of a coalition led by Sunni Islamists, Israel has taken up the cause for this esoteric community, resulting from a branch of Shiite Islam, also established in Israel and Lebanon.
The OSDH also mentioned four Druzes fighters killed during the day on Friday in a drone strike in the province of Souweida, Bastion of the Druze minority in the south, without specifying its origin.
“Genocidal campaign”
Monday and Tuesday, violence in Jaramana (Damascus district with a large Druze community), in Sahnaya (15 kilometers from the capital, where Druzes and Christians live), and Souweida left 102 dead in both camps, according to OSDH. These fights were triggered by an attack of armed groups affiliated to power in Jaramana, after the broadcast of an audio message attributed to a Druze and judged blasphemous with regard to the Prophet Muhammad. AFP could not verify the authenticity of the message.
Thursday evening, the most influential Druze leader in Syria, Cheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, had denounced a “Genocidal campaign” targeting “Civilians” of his community. The Syrian authorities, who have since reaffirmed their “Farm commitment to protect all the components of the Syrian people, including the Druze community”questioned elements that escape its control.
These fights woke up the specter of massacres which had made, in early March, more than 1,700 dead, the vast majority of members of the Alaouite minority, from which the fallen president, in the west of the country.