AFPIsrael says that his fighter planes bombed an area next to the presidential palace in the capital of Syria, Damascus, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to protect the religious minority of Druze after days of deadly sectarian violence.
Netanyahu said that the strike was a “clear message to the Syrian regime” that Israel “would not authorize the deployment of forces in the south of Damascus or a threat to the Druze community”.
The Syrian presidency said that she had strongly condemned the strike, calling her a “dangerous escalation” intended to destabilize Syria.
Israel also made strikes south of Damascus on Wednesday during the clashes between men armed with Druze, security forces and Sunni Allied Islamist fighters.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also criticized the last air strike, calling it “violation of Syria’s sovereignty”.
In a statement pronounced by its spokesperson, Guterres called for Israel to stop such attacks and to respect “unity, its territorial integrity of Syria and its independence”.
A spiritual leader of the Syrian Druze, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, condemned violence on Thursday as an “unjustifiable genocidal campaign” against his community and called for intervention by “international forces to maintain peace”.
Other religious leaders of Druze published a declaration early Friday confirming what they said to be “the commitment of the community towards a country which includes all the Syrians, a nation without conflict”, according to the Associated Press.
They would also have declared that the state should be activated in the Province of Suwaida and that the authorities should control the UWEAIDA-DAMASCUS motorway.
The Syrian government said that he had deployed security forces in Druze areas to fight “outlaws outlaws” which he has accused of prompting the clashes.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a surveillance group based in the United Kingdom, at least 109 people were killed this week in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, a city on the southern outskirts of Damascus, the banality mainly from the Druze of Jaramana and the southern Province of Rewaida, which undergoes a Druze majority.
He indicates that this includes 11 civilians from Druze and 26 Druze fighters, as well as 42 other Druze men who were slaughtered in an “ambush” by the security forces when he traveled from Suwida to Damascus on Wednesday. Thirty members of the general security service and allied fighters were also killed, he said.
Syria TV, based in Istanbul, reported that the Israeli air strike near the presidential palace seemed to have targeted an empty zone and that there was no report of victims or material damage.
The Israeli Defense Minister published a statement saying that when the Syrian President woke up and saw the results, he “understands that Israel is determined to prevent the Druzes in Syria”.
“It is [Sharaa’s] duty to protect the Druze in the suburbs of Damascus against the jihadist attackers and to authorize the hundreds of thousands of Druze in Uwaida and Jabal Al-Druze to defend themselves, rather than sending jihadist forces to their communities, “he added.
In a statement released on Friday afternoon, the Syrian presidency said that she had “condemned the strongest of the presidential palace to the Israeli occupation yesterday, which constitutes a dangerous escalation against state institutions and state sovereignty”.
“This reprehensible attack reflects the continuation of reckless movements that seek to destabilize the country and exacerbate the security attacks,” he added.
The presidency also called on the international community to stand up in Syria to confront attacks, which said that he had violated international law.
A Druze religious leader in Uwaida, Sheikh Hamoud al-Hinawi, said in the BBC that the situation was “still tense” in the affected areas.
“What is happening right now is sectarian targeting by extremist elements [and] It is the duty of the state to protect civilians, “he said.
“We support the rule of law and national sovereignty of Syria, as long as the national government protects its citizens and adheres to its commitment to rebuild a modern Syria.”
When he was asked if he supported the Israeli intervention, Sheikh Hinawi said: “It is not a question of whether I am for or against Israel – it is a question of life and death for us and if we are attacked, we have all the right defenses.”
On Thursday, a member of the security forces deployed at Ashrafiyat Sahnaya told the BBC that he “did not target any sect, but that he was rather concerned with an armed group acting outside the law, whatever his religious affiliation”, adding: “such a group will be held responsible”.
ReutersSectal violence broke out in Jaramana on Monday evening after an audio clip of an insulting man the Prophet Muhammad circulated on social networks and angry the Sunni Muslims. It was attributed to a Clerc Druze, but he denied all responsibility. The Interior Ministry also said that a preliminary investigation had erased it.
The faith of the Druze is a branching of Shiite Islam with its own identity and its unique beliefs. Half of its million followers live in Syria, where they represent approximately 3% of the population, while there are smaller communities in Lebanon, Israel and occupied Golan Heights.
The president of the transition in Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, promised to protect the many religious and ethnic minorities of the country since his Islamist Sunni group led the rebel offensive which overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December after 13 years of devastating civil war.
However, the mass murders of hundreds of civilians from the Alawites Minority Alawites of Assad in the West Coastal region in March, during the clashes between the new security forces and the Loyalists of Assad, harden fears among the minority communities.
In February, the Israeli Prime Minister warned that he would “tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria” of the country’s new security forces.
Netanyahu also demanded the complete demilitarization of Suwaida and two other southern provinces, saying that Israel had seen the Sunni Islamist group of Sharaa, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), as a threat. HTS is a former affiliate of al-Qaeda who is always designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the United States, the EU and the United Kingdom.
The Israeli army has already carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy the country’s military assets in the past four months. He also sent troops to the unconteited demilitarized buffer zone between the heights of Golan, occupied by Israeli and Syria, as well as several adjacent areas and the summit of Mont Hermon.
