PM Netanyahu instructs Israeli forces to protect Syrian Druze village against Islamist regime in Damascus

The Israeli government has instructed the Israel Defense Forces to defend the Druze village Jaramana in southern Syria, after the Islamist regime in Damascus launched military operations in the area.

Jaramana, which has a mixed population of Druze and Christian Syrians, has become a focal point of recent clashes between local Druze forces and forces of Syria's Islamist regime. 

"We will not allow the terrorist regime of radical Islam in Syria to harm the Druze," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.

"If the regime harms the Druze, it will be harmed by us. 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 steps to maintain their security," the Israeli leaders added. 

Tensions are running high between the Syrian Druze minority and the new Islamist regime in Damascus. The Qatar-based Arabic news outlet Al-Araby reported that one member of the Syrian forces was killed during clashes with local Druze forces. 

Approximately 150,000 Druze Israelis live in the Jewish state and most Druze Israeli men serve in the IDF. In addition, some 25,000 Druze live in the Israeli Golan Heights and have close family ties with the Druze population on the Syrian side of the border. 

In February, sources in the southern Syrian al-Quneitra province revealed that the Israeli military had conveyed "tempting offers" concerning employment opportunities inside Israel to the local Syrian Druze population. 

"The IDF expressed to those who were offered work that it wanted to issue entry permits that would enable them to enter Israel and work there, just as it did with Palestinians who work in Israel," one local resident told the Saudi news outlet Al-Arabiya. 

The Golan Heights have an ancient Jewish history. The fortified Jewish Golan town of Gamla played a leading role in the Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire and became known as the Masada of the North. 

In 1967, the Israeli military captured the Golan Heights after the Syrian regime attacked Israel and had used the strategically important heights for terrorizing Israeli civilians living in border communities.

In 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump formally proclaimed that “the United States recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel.”

In December 2024, following the collapse of the former Syrian Assad regime, the Israeli government ordered the IDF to capture the buffer zone between Syria and Israel. The purpose of the operation was to prevent Islamist forces from entering the territory and threatening nearby Israeli border communities. 

Netanyahu vowed that Israeli forces would remain in the area “until security can be guaranteed.” 

“Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7th-style attacks. That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar recently cautioned foreign ministers from 20 European Union member states about the Syrian regime, accusing it of attempting to downplay its Islamist ideology.

“The new government is a jihadist Islamic terrorist group from Idlib that took Damascus by force. We are all happy that Assad is gone, but we must be realistic. The Islamists speak softly – check how Iran spoke in 1979. But everyone knows who the new leader is,” Sa’ar stated, referring to the new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Shara’a, also known as Mohammed al-Jolani, who was previously affiliated with the radical Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda.