Syrian Druze will be able to enter the Israeli Golan Heights to work starting on Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Tuesday.
“We will strengthen ties with the residents of the region, and soon, on the 16th of the month, the Druze will start working in the Golan Heights communities,” Katz said in remarks published by his office following an official visit to the buffer zone on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
The initial stage of the pilot will see dozens of Syrian Druze working in construction and agriculture in Golan Druze towns, Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported last month.
The plan was reportedly initiated by Israeli Druze, who asked security officials to come to the aid of their people across the northern border. The plan was drawn up by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, a Druze who heads the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Unit for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories.
Katz during his tour reiterated his commitment to the Israel Defense Forces staying in Syrian territory “indefinitely” to protect the border.
“Every morning when [Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa] opens his eyes in the presidential palace in Damascus, he will see the IDF watching him from the heights of the Hermon and will remember that we are here, in all security areas in southern Syria,” he said.
“We are here to protect the residents of the Golan and the Galilee from any threat posed by him and his jihadi associates,” added the minister.
On Monday, Katz slammed mass killings and other atrocities carried out in Syria in recent days. Al-Shara’a “took off his jalabiya, put on a suit, and presented a moderate facade,” but now “has removed the mask, revealing his true face: a jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaeda school, committing atrocities against the Alawite civilian population.”
The massacres in Syria have reignited concerns over the country’s new Sunni Islamist government. More than a thousand people have been killed in the coastal provinces of Tartus and Latakia, with the true figure possibly being much higher.
Al-Sharaa’s government has denied responsibility for the killings, calling the accusations “undocumented.” Local human rights groups have also reported Assad loyalists killing members of Al-Sharaa’s security forces.
Al-Sharaa was a leading figure in Al-Qaeda before founding Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the overthrow of the Assad regime last year.
Katz said Israel would ensure southern Syria remains demilitarized and free of threat, and would protect the local Druze population, warning that “anyone who harms them will face our response.”
Earlier this month, Katz and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the new government in Damascus that if it harmed Syria’s Druze community, Jerusalem would retaliate militarily.
“We will not allow the terrorist regime of radical Islam in Syria to harm the Druze. We have instructed the IDF to prepare and deliver a harsh and clear warning: If the regime harms the Druze, it will be harmed by us,” the Israeli leaders said in a joint statement issued on March 1.
“We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all necessary measures to ensure their safety,” the statement added.
Netanyahu and Katz instructed the military to prepare to defend the city of Jaramana, located about 1.8 miles southeast of Damascus, in the Rif Dimashq (“Damascus Suburb”) Governorate on the Ghouta plain.
