On May 2, 2025, Israel conducted an airstrike near the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that the strike was a clear message to Syria’s new Islamist-led government, warning against threats to the Druze minority in southern Syria.

The Israeli government has expressed concerns over Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously led a branch of al Qaeda before renouncing ties in 2016. Israel has increased military operations in Syria since the ousting of Bashar al-Assad in December, including bombings and ground force deployments in the southwest.

The Israeli military said troops were deployed in southern Syria to prevent the return of hostile forces to areas around Druze villages. It said forces were ready for defence and “various scenarios”.

It added that five Syrian-Druze citizens were evacuated to receive medical treatment in Israel after sustaining wounds.

Earlier Israel’s military said it struck an area “adjacent” to Sharaa’s palace in Damascus, without further details. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The strike was “a clear message to the Syrian regime: We will not allow (Syrian) forces to deploy south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.

Syria’s government condemned the bombing as a “dangerous escalation” amid rising tensions between the two countries. The situation has heightened fears among minority communities, particularly the Druze, who have been caught in sectarian violence.

“Israel doesn’t want peace. Nor does it care for the groups it purportedly protects by bombing others,” Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Razan Saffour wrote on X, adding Israel had never bombed near the palace when Assad was in power.

A Syrian official told Reuters the target was about 100 metres (330 feet) east of the palace’s perimeter.

SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

It followed days of clashes in Syria between Sunni Muslim and Druze gunmen triggered by a voice recording purportedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed. The fighting killed more than two dozen people in towns around Damascus and prompted an initial Israeli “warning strike” on a town on the capital’s outskirts that killed one member of Syria’s security forces.

Israeli opposition parties expressed support for operations in Syria.

“Israel cannot abandon the Druze in Syria to their fate,” centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid said on the social media platform X. “The Syrian regime must know they are our allies and we will not stand by while they are attacked.”

This week’s fighting posed the latest challenge for Sharaa, who has repeatedly vowed to unite all of Syria’s armed forces under one structure and govern the country, fractured by 14 years of civil war until Assad’s overthrow, in an inclusive way.

But incidents of sectarian violence, notably the killing of hundreds of pro-Assad Alawites in March, have hardened fears among minority groups about the now-dominant Islamists and sparked condemnation from global powers.

On Thursday, the clashes began spreading further south to the province of Sweida, which is predominantly Druze.

‘DON’T NEED ANYONE’S PROTECTION’

Late on Thursday, Druze community leaders and Syrian government officials met in Sweida in a bid to defuse tensions. Their concluding statement said residents of Sweida would protect their province as a part of Syria’s internal security forces, and rejected “division, separation or secession”.

“Syria is our mother nation, we do not have an alternative country,” Sheikh Laith al-Balous, one of the Druze leaders in the meeting, told Syria TV in an interview when asked whether Israel’s strikes on Syria were meant to protect the Druze. “We don’t need anyone’s protection.”

Syrian security forces were patrolling the village of Al-Soura al-Kubra in Sweida province on Friday, where residents had fled clashes the previous day between approaching Sunni Islamist militants and Druze fighters defending the town.

Residents told Reuters that when they returned, they found their homes had been looted. Salman Olaiwi said his door had been broken down and money was missing, but that he was glad an agreement had been reached to end the fighting.

Israel has a small Druze community and there are also some 24,000 Druze living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel annexed the territory in 1981, a move that has not been recognised by most countries or the United Nations.

Some Druze in Israel serving in the Israeli military wrote to Netanyahu demanding help for their kin in Syria, saying “hundreds of fighters” were ready to volunteer to help.

Source: Reuters