Sweida, Druze in Syria
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Syria, Israel and Sectarian Violence
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Israel’s latest airstrikes in Syria are as much about preventing regime consolidation as they are about protecting the Druze minority.
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.
In a hardening of his rhetoric against Syria’s southern neighbour, Mr Sharaa accused Israel of seeking to foment “endless chaos”. He said Syria faced a choice between “open war with the Israeli entity” or handing security in the Sweida province over to factions from the country’s Druze minority.
"If Israel feels that a certain leader...is an evident threat to its national security, it will operate," a former Israeli envoy told Newsweek.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.
Israel struck Syria’s military headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday and moved more troops to the border in a bid, officials said, to prevent attacks against the Syrian Druze community.