Israeli Druze Attack Military Ambulance, Syrian al-Qaeda Fighter Within Killed

Eager to see regime change in Syria, Israel has long touted its medical aid to injured Syrian rebels along the border with the occupied Golan Heights. As Syria’s Druze minority becomes a target for those same rebels, however, the Israeli aid isn’t sitting well with its own Druze minority.

For the second time in as many days, Israeli Druze today attacked an Israeli military ambulance in the Golan. Unlike the previous incident, this one ended with the death of one of the Syrian rebels within, who was reportedly a fighter for al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra faction.

Israeli Druze leaders criticized the attack, saying anything that harms the Israeli military puts Druze across the region at risk, and reiterating that their loyalty must be to the Israeli state first. That doesn’t appear to hold true for Druze residents in the occupied Golan, however, who remain opposed to Israeli aid for rebels attacking Druze in Syria.

The Israeli government has tried to reassure the Druze that they’ll launch military intervention against Syria to protect the Druze in that country, but this doesn’t seem to be largely believed, and after al-Qaeda sacked a Druze village in their territory in the north, increasingly the sense is that the religious minority, like so many others in Syria, is in serious peril.