Israel Strikes Syrian Defence Ministry Headquarters In Damascus
The Israel Defense Forces, which announced the strike on the gates of the facility, said it is also hitting southern Syria and is “prepared for various scenarios.”
Israel intensified its attacks on Syria, striking the country’s military headquarters in Damascus around midday on Wednesday.
The Israel Defense Forces, which announced the strike on the gates of the facility, said it is also hitting southern Syria and is “prepared for various scenarios.”
Israel has stepped up operations in Syria since Monday and says it’s acting in defense of the Druze community, a minority group the Jewish state has pledged to protect.
Syria’s state-run agency reported an explosion in Damascus and drone attacks in Suwayda, a southern part of the country close to Israel. There have been deadly clashes in Suwayda in recent days between Druze and Bedouin groups. Syria’s government has moved troops into the area and says it’s trying to quell the violence.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military will “continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw” from Suwayda and “will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood.”
The US asked Israel to stop its strikes on Syria, an Axios reporter said on Tuesday. The reporter, citing an unnamed US official, said Israel promised to cease strikes on Tuesday evening.
The IDF said some Druze were trying to cross from Israel into Syria, while other people were attempting the opposite journey.
“This is a serious incident constituting a criminal offense and endangers the public and IDF troops,” the military said on Wednesday.
Syria government said it condemned the clashes in Suwayda and would investigate and punish those involved.
The violence in Suwayda, where the Syrian Druze are concentrated, killed about 100 people in the past few days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said Druze battled with tribal fighters as well as state military and police forces.
The roughly 700,000-strong Druze community in Syria has forged closer ties with Israel — which has about 150,000 Druze — since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December. They have feared a sectarian backlash from Islamist militants allied with the new administration of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The Druze are Arabs whose faith is an offshoot of Islam. There are 1 million of them, living mostly in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Druze men who are Israeli citizens do military service and, with their Arabic on the one hand and loyalty to the Israeli state on the other, often rise high in the ranks.
There are around 20,000 Druze in the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981. Most of those Druze identify more with Syria than Israel, although there have been signs of that changing among the younger generations.
Israel positioned some ground forces on Syrian territory soon after al-Assad, an ally of Iran, fell. It’s regularly struck Syria this year and remains wary of al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda founder.
Yet in the past month Israel said it was open to a peace deal with Damascus, something that seemed to be given impetus by US President Donald Trump ending sanctions on the Syrian government.
