Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Sunday strongly condemned atrocities in Syria allegedly committed by forces loyal to the country’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
In an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper, Sa’ar criticized European leaders for their engagement with al-Sharaa.
“Europeans flocked to Damascus in recent months to shake his hand, but he and his men were jihadists and have remained so, even if they now wear suits,” Sa’ar said.
The massacres taking place in Syria have reignited concerns over the Sunni Islamist government that overthrew Bashar Assad in December. More than a thousand people were killed in the coastal provinces of Tartus and Latakia, with some 700 civilians executed at close range, according to reports.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 745 civilians, 125 government security force members and 148 militants from armed groups affiliated with the Assad regime had been killed.
Sa’ar dismissed al-Sharaa’s assurances of inclusivity as a façade, referring to him by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani: “This weekend, the masks fell. Al-Jolani’s men mercilessly massacred their own people—the citizens of the so-called ‘New Syria.’”
The Israeli foreign minister urged Europe to take a firm stance: “It must stop lending legitimacy to a regime whose first acts—unsurprisingly, given its terrorist past—are these atrocities.”
He called on the international community to speak out “against the massacre” and “the barbaric murder of civilians.”
Videos circulating online show armed militants executing civilians, with reports of gunmen indiscriminately attacking homes, checking IDs to target specific religious minorities and looting properties. Survivors described horrific scenes of bodies in the streets.
The killings occurred in the country’s coastal region, home to the Alawite minority, a sect to which Assad belongs.
Al-Sharaa was a leading figure in Al-Qaeda before founding Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). His government denies responsibility for the mass killings, calling the accusations “undocumented.” Human rights groups have also reported Assad loyalists killing members of al-Sharaa’s security forces.
