The Israeli fighter jets found near the Presidential Palace in Damascus, the Syrian capital, at the beginning of Friday, in what the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense said that a message was to the Syrian government after a wave of sectarian violence.
The last days, More than 100 people have died In collisions between Syrian pro-government forces and militants from the Druese minority of the country. The Druse practice A secret religion with its roots in IslamAnd those who live in Syria are close by Tires with the Druse community in Israel.
Friday’s strike is the second time since the violence this week broke out Israel has intervened militarily.
“This is a clear message to the Syrian regime,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Israel Katz in a joint explanation about the strike. “We will not allow forces from the south of Damascus and any danger to the Druse community.”
In a separate statement, the Israeli army said that his war aircraft “had attacked the area near Ahmed Hussein Al-Shara in Damascus,” referring to the president of Syria. Mr. Al-Shara, a former Al Qaeda branch whose rebel coalition President Bashar al-Assad has overthrown in December, is now presenting himself as a statesman, but Israeli leaders have spoken to hairness.
The strike did not take immediate comments from the government of Syria. Images on social media showed plumes of smoking that emerged in the night sky in Damascus after the action of Israel. It was not clear what had happened or how much damage had been done.
By Thursday evening, the representatives of the Syrian government had concluded the similarities with Druse leaders in an attempt to calm down the violence, and leaders in the Druse-controlled Sweida region, previously reluctant to unite with government forces, had expressed openness for this.
Israel has offered to protect the Druse in Syria if they are attacked in the midst The tumultuous transition of power In the country, and it has tried to cultivate relationships with Syrian Druse communities. Many Syrian Druse have rejected what they regard as potentially destructive foreign interference.
The Druse community in IsraelHowever, however Pressure on Israel to intervene. Friday’s strike in Damascus came after Druse demonstrators in Israel had blocked motorways on Thursday in the midst of increasing demands of members of the community there, some of whom serve in the army, that Israel acts vigorously in Syria.
On Thursday, the Israeli army said in a statement that two wounded Syrian Druse citizens had been evacuated to get medical treatment in Israel. Israeli troops had evacuated several other Syrian Druse pain in the violence earlier in the week.
The Israeli army also said on Thursday that its troops were being used in the South Syrian region and “prepared to prevent hostile troops from entering the region and Druse villages.”
Mr. Katz, the Minister of Defense of Israel, said on Thursday that Israel “would respond with great seriousness” if the attacks on the Druse did not stop and said that Syrian leadership bore the responsibility to prevent them. “We are dedicated to defend the Druse,” he added.
On Wednesday, Israel launched air strikes on Syria and threatened to strike the armed forces as collisions between pro-government hunters and Drus Militie members. The Israeli army said his plane had beaten a group of ‘agents’ that was accused of Israel of having attacked ‘Druse citizens’ in the spreading violence around the edge of Damascus.
The most recent outbreak of sectarian unrest in Syria began on Tuesday after an Audioclip circulated on social media who claims to be a druse -spiritual that the prophet Mohammed insults. The spiritual denied the accusation and the Ministry of the Interior of Syria said he was not involved.
Nevertheless, armed Sunni Muslime Extremist groups of areas began to attack large Druse populations, including the city of Jaramana near Damascus. Druse -Milities responded in force and the government sent security staff to suppress the unrest.
On Wednesday the collisions spread to another city on the southern edge of Damascus, and in Sweida, with fighting until Thursday morning.
Five prominent Druse leaders published a statement on Thursday evening that said staff from the Ministry of the Interior and the judicial police “from the people” of Sweida “must be activated, which points to an willingness to join forces with the government.
They also said that the government forces were used to secure the way from Sweida to the capital. The government also agreed to send reinforcements to protect Jaramana, Druese leaders said there.
The US Department of Foreign Affairs called on the government of Syria on Thursday to stop sectarian violence and to keep the perpetrators responsible. “The recent violence and inflammatory rhetoric aimed at members of the Druse community in Syria is reprehensible and unacceptable,” said a spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce. “Sectarianism will only sink Syria and the region in chaos and more violence.”
There are more than a million Druse in the middle, usually in Syria and Lebanon, with some also in Jordan and Israel. Those in Druse communities, wherever they can be, generally tend to participate in national social and political life and often serve in the local army, despite maintaining a separate culture and religious practices.
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