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Israel ramped up airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday following experiences that members of the Druze spiritual minority had been being massacred by militant Islamists, shining a highlight on a singular group that has lived within the area for greater than a thousand years and stays tightly linked regardless of being scattered throughout worldwide borders.
Round 150,000 Druze reside in Israel’s north and on the Golan Heights, however there are additionally giant communities in Syria and Lebanon – neighboring nations which have technically been at warfare with Israel for many years – and a smaller group in Jordan.
An esoteric, monotheistic faith that includes parts of different Abrahamic religions, in addition to a number of different philosophies, the Druze, an Arabic-speaking inhabitants, view themselves as one folks regardless of the hostile borders that divide them.
ISRAEL STRIKES SYRIA’S MILITARY HEADQAURTERS AS THE REGIME CLASHES WITH DRUZE CIVILIANS
A younger man waves the Druze flag as he watches the preventing between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels within the Druze village of Khader in Syria, from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, on June 17, 2015. (AP Picture/Ariel Schalit)
As their faith dictates loyalty to the nation by which they reside, most of those who reside in Israel are proud residents, with an amazing 83% of the boys enlisting within the Israeli military. Roughly 5% of all Israel Protection Forces troopers are Druze, and they’re a few of the nation’s fiercest warriors.
Moreover, the Druze account for round 20% of Israel’s jail guards and about 6.5% of the nation’s law enforcement officials.
This dedication has earned them a particular place in Israeli society, pushing Israeli political and navy leaders to vow motion if the Druze group in Syria is threatened in any manner.
As experiences surfaced that Islamists, and regime-backed loyalists, had clashed with Druze militia in southern Syria on Tuesday, greater than a thousand younger Israeli Druze residents rushed throughout the border in a bid to rescue their brethren, Israeli media reported.
Stories confirmed a whole bunch of individuals, together with some who had been armed, breaking down the border fence and dashing into close by Druze villages in Syria.
Israeli Druze within the Golan Heights mass alongside the Syrian border on July 16, 2025. Many breached the border in a bid to assist their Syrian brethren, who’ve been locked in days of ethnic violence. (Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS-IL)
In a briefing on Wednesday, an Israeli navy official defined that many members of Israel’s Druze group have shut family members dwelling in Syria and that’s the reason they went to assist. The official stated Israel was now working to convey them house.
“The IDF is dedicated to the deep alliance with the Druze group,” IDF chief of workers Eyal Zamir emphasised.
Professor Eyal Zisser, a number one Israeli educational professional on Syria and the Druze group, advised Fox Information Digital that it was a “distinctive” scenario.
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Walid Jumblatt, the Druze political chief in Lebanon, middle background, stands with clerics shortly after a gathering of the group’s spiritual management in Beirut, Lebanon, June 12, 2015. (AP Picture/Bilal Hussein)
“Israel’s Druze group is placing stress on the federal government, so for home causes Israel has to take care of this,” he stated, including that the present Israeli authorities “believes in utilizing pressure to appease its base and present that it’s sturdy and utilizing energy, or no matter is required.”
This isn’t the primary time, Israel’s Druze have rushed to guard their group in Syria. In 2015, when Druze there got here below menace from ISIS and from the native al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, Druze in Israel worked to lift funds and arms for his or her brethren throughout the border.
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In April, months after the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, a whole bunch of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the border taking a uncommon journey to Israel to have fun the group’s vacation of Ziyara on the Nabi Shuaib holy website, simply west of the Sea of Galilee.
