With the Massacre of a Syrian Minority Becoming Clear, Up to 1,500 of Their Israeli Brethren Breach the Border

Following new Israeli airstrikes against Damascus targets, Washington is scrambling to calm tensions in Syria. Yet, as alarming details emerge of atrocities and jihadist massacres of the Syrian Druze, some of their Israeli brethren breached the border, hoping to rescue their relatives.The Israel Defense Force attacked regime troops affiliated with Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa. The new Damascus regime’s patron, President Erdogan of Turkey, threatened to act militarily against Israel. Washington, meanwhile, is working to navigate a complex regional web of cross interests, even as a massacre of a Syrian minority is becoming clear. “It’s complicated,” Secretary Rubio said at the White House Wednesday, where President Trump hosted Prime Minister Salman al-Khalifa of Bahrain. “Historic, long-time rivalries” among Syrian sects, Mr. Rubio said, “led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side.”Mr Rubio added that Washington’s negotiations with all sides could lead to de-escalation “in the next few hours.” Even after a tentative cease-fire agreement between Damascus and the Druze was reported, though, up to 1,500 Israeli Druze, including IDF officers, defied Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call to refrain from crossing the border into Syria, rushing to aid relatives and acquaintances at Sweida. At least 2,500 Druze have been killed in southwestern Syria since Sunday. For days, Sunni Jihadists loosely affiliated with Mr. Sharaa murdered, raped, humiliated, and maimed locals. Israeli Druze compared the atrocities to the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of Israelis. “Israel will not abandon its Druze allies,” the founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute, Yogal Carmon, told the Sun. “Even Trump can’t stop this. Israel’s failure to rescue the Syrian Druze could lead to a major crisis in the IDF.” Since the founding of Israel, its Druze minority has boasted the largest non-Jewish presence in the state’s military. Druze officers serve at the IDF’s highest echelons. On Wednesday, the IDF conducted airstrikes across Syria, hitting targets including the Damascus defense ministry, the Syrian military headquarters, and the presidential palace. “No more signaling, now come the painful hits,” the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X. “You are Israeli citizens, do not cross the border,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language appeal to Israeli Druze. As the IDF acts to rescue the Syrian Druze, he added, “you’re putting your lives at risk. You could be killed, kidnapped, and you’re hindering the IDF’s efforts. So I’m asking you, return to your homes. Let the IDF do its job.”Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, rushed to denounce the Israeli military activity, and Damascus demanded to convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Israel’s “aggression.” The IDF’s attacks “pose a security threat to the entire region and the world,” a spokesman for Mr. Erdogan, Omer Celik, wrote on X. “Shraa is an Erdogan protege, and Erdogan has a problem with the Kurds,” Memri’s Mr. Carmon says. “Six months have passed since Sharaa seized power in Syria and still, nothing is moving in the fight with the American-allied Kurds. So Sharaa and the Turks decided to first attack the Druze, and afterwards move against the Kurds.”Attacks at an area known as the Druze Mountain were launched Sunday, when armed Bedouins entered Sweida. Armed Sunni militias, including some wearing ISIS insignia, then joined the fight, shaving Druze men’s mustaches and reportedly raping girls as young as 10 years old while forcing their parents to watch at gunpoint. It is unclear whether the interim president, a former ISIS and Al Qaeda leader once known as Al Joulani, is in full control of these militias. On Wednesday Mr. Sharaa dispatched Syrian troops to the area, purportedly to prevent further atrocities. By evening, though, some 1,500 Syrian army troops surrounded Sweida, while up to 200 armed men continued the assaults against the Druze inside the city. Israelis wondered whether Mr. Sharaa’s troops surrounded the city to protect the Druze, or to back the jihadist attackers inside. “Some think Sharaa has control and can run a proper government, but he can’t,” a veteran Mideast analyst, Ehud Yaari, said on N12 television. Mr. Carmon, though, said that the attack on the Druze was orchestrated by Mr. Sharaa from the start.The Syrian Druze community, meanwhile, is deeply divided. Some leaders encouraged Israel’s intervention, while others condemned it. One leader, Sheikh Yousef Jarbou, announced Wednesday that a cease-fire agreement was reached with Damascus. Another, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, denied such a pact existed, and vowed to fight until “the complete liberation of Sweida.”

With the Massacre of a Syrian Minority Becoming Clear, Up to 1,500 of Their Israeli Brethren Breach the Border

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