Israel Strikes Metro Damascus, Say They Will ‘Protect’ Druze

Sectarian fighting in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana left at least 18 dead yesterday, and Israel is already looking to parlay that into a new excuse for military action against the Syrian government, with the idea that they need to “protect” the Druze minority militarily.

The Israeli military reported attacking the Damascus suburb of Sahnaya, and that they targeted an “extremist group” that was planning new attacks on the Druze. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz issued statements demanding the Syrian government take action to prevent further attacks on the Druze.

Details of the strike are still scant. Indeed, Syria’s Interior Ministry said they had yet to receive word that the Israeli attack even took place at all. Since Israel launches a large number of attacks inside Syria regularly, it’s not necessarily improbable that they launched one on Sahnaya, but it appears not to have been particularly large.

Israeli Army chief Eyal Zamir has threatened to carry out attacks across Syria if the attacks on the Druze don’t stop, and said that he has ordered his staff to prepare for targets in Syria to that end.

Though the HTS has already promised investigations into what happened yesterday in the Druze community in Jaramana, it’s not clear Israeli threats will mean much at any rate, since Israel is already actively attacking Syria at any rate, and this is just the latest pretext for continuing that.

Also, using the Druze as an excuse isn’t even new, it’s more being revived. In early March, a smaller clash in Jaramana led to Israel similarly vowing to protect the Druze, imposing a ban on all Syrian military assets south of Damascus, and offering to give Syrian Druze in the newly occupied parts of Syria “work permits” to go into Israel to work, an offer that was later rescinded.

Israeli Druze are going along with this, carrying out a demonstration near Acre which Israeli police declared “illegal.” Druze make up about 2% of Israel’s population, and about 3%-4% of Syria’s population, centered mainly on the Suwayda Governorate.

Yesterday’s gunbattle was fueled by an audio clip which went viral online. The audio was of someone insulting the Muslim Prophet Muhammed, and was purported to be a Syrian Druze person speaking. It has not been verified that was actually the origin.

Indeed, many people are speculating this was an effort at “incitement” against the Druze minority in Syria, and it certainly seems to have worked, at least for a time. Syria’s Islamist government has promised to investigate this possibility, and some are suggesting it may be an external effort to fuel unrest within Syria.