Israeli troops on Wednesday sought to control crowds and prevent Druze from crossing into Syrian territory, after deadly sectarian violence prompted Damascus to send government forces to Syria’s south.
Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights fired teargas to keep order along the heavily fortified frontier as dozens of people tried to cross over, said an AFP reporter in Majdal Shams, a mainly Druze town in the Israeli-annexed area.
Large crowds of men, many of them in the traditional Druze attire of white caps and black tunics, gathered in front of the barbed wire, chanting and waving Druze flags, as Israeli soldiers looked on.
“We just want to help our people. We want to help the parents, we want to help our families,” said Faiz Shakir, from the Golan Heights.
He said he was “very, very frustrated” after hearing of atrocities against the Druze in Syria.
“There’s nothing we can do. Our families are there… my wife is from there, my mother is from there, my uncles are there, my whole family is from there.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that “dozens of suspects” had tried to “infiltrate Israeli territory”, with troops and border police “operating to prevent the infiltration and disperse the gathering”.
It added that “simultaneously, several Israeli civilians crossed the border fence into Syrian territory in the area of Majdal Shams” and troops were “operating to safely return” them.
Tensions have surged after Syria’s government deployed its security forces following unrest between members of the Druze religious minority and Bedouin fighters in the southern province of Sweida, which abuts the Golan Heights.
Witnesses, Druze armed groups and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Syrian troops took part in fighting with the Bedouin against the Druze, which Israel has vowed to protect.
The Observatory said that 27 Druze civilians had been killed sine Sunday in “summary executions… by members of the defence and interior ministries”.
Israel, home to 153,000 Druze citizens, has repeatedly stated its intention to defend the community in Syria, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised and that Israel would not accept the presence of Damascus’s Islamist-led government near its territory.
– ‘Very serious’ –
In the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967, more than 22,000 Druze hold permanent resident status, and maintain family ties inside Syria.
Only around 1,600 have taken up the offer of Israeli citizenship. The remainder maintain their Syrian identity.
The minority also accounts for about three percent of Syria’s population and is heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu described the situation in Sweida as “very serious” and urged concerned Druze not to cross the border.
“You are endangering your lives,” he said. “You could be killed, you could be kidnapped, and you are harming the efforts of the (Israeli military).”
The Israeli military, which announced the reinforcement of the border with more troops including some from Gaza, said earlier it had struck the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said that “the signals to Damascus are over — now come the painful blows”, sharing Syrian television footage of an explosion in Damascus on his X account.
He promised that troops would “operate forcefully in Sweida to eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal”.
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