IDF prepares to defend Druze suburb of Damascus against Syrian regime

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the new regime in Damascus on Saturday evening that if it harms the Druze community in Syria, Israel will retaliate.

“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.

“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 continued.

Netanyahu and Katz instructed the Israeli 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.

Jaramana has a mostly Druze and Christian population.

Exchanges of fire erupted in the city of Jaramana between government forces and local armed groups earlier on Saturday, Syrian media reported. One person was killed and two others were wounded in these incidents, the reports added.

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported that the clashes in Jaramana are the result of a local feud and are not part of an organized attack by the government.

In an address to new officers at an IDF graduation ceremony last week, Netanyahu warned the Sunni jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose leaders rule Syria following the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, that Israel “will not allow forces of HTS or the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus.”

He said that the Israel Defense Forces “will remain in the Hermon sector and the buffer zone [in the Syrian Golan Heights] indefinitely to protect our communities and thwart any threat.”

Furthermore, Reuters reported, citing four sources familiar with the matter, that Israel is pressuring the U.S. to ensure Syria remains weak and fragmented, including by allowing Russia to maintain its military bases there to counter Turkey’s growing influence in the country.

Israeli officials, alarmed by the Sunni Islamist rulers now in power in Syria with Ankara’s backing, have conveyed to Washington that they pose a threat to Israel’s borders, according to the sources.

“Israel’s biggest fear is that Turkey will intervene to protect the new Islamist regime in Syria, which would then become a base for Hamas and other militants,” said Aron Lund, a fellow at the U.S.-based Century International research institute and a Middle East analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI).

It remains unclear to what extent the Trump administration is considering adopting Israel’s proposals, the sources told Reuters.