With bombs on government goals in Damascus, Israel added a new chapter to his interventions in Syria on Wednesday. The bombing were officially intended to protect the Syrian Druzen population. But after attacking on countless other countries in the region, Israel, above all, sent a signal from his supreme power to the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Israel focused the bombs on the Syrian Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Palace. The ministry was damaged. The Israeli Minister ITAMAR Ben-Gvir (National Security) also called for the elimination of Al-Sharaa. According to the Syrian Ministry of Health, there were at least three deaths and dozens of injuries in the attacks.
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The bombing followed on days of violence in the southern Syrian province of Sweida, where a large Druzzian population lives. After a Druzzian resident was abducted by Bedouins, violence broke out between those two population groups, on which Syrian government forces intervenes. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the death toll has risen to more than three hundred.
Druze
Israel seized the violence in Sweida to re-throw itself as the patron of the Druze in Syria, as it has done since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Druzen form an Arabic -speaking religious group that lives in Israel and on the Syrian plateau of Golan occupied by Israel in Syria and other Arab countries.
Most drowns at the Golan height feel connected to Syria
In contrast to the Druzen in Israel, who are often loyal to the state and compulsory military service, most druzen on that Golan height do not have Israeli nationality and feel connected to Syria. Prior to the Israeli bombing of Syria, chaos arose at the Golan Height, where Druzen crossed the border of the recently occupied buffer zone with Syria from both sides. Tear gas was used by the Israeli army.
Most drowns in southern Syria, including their leaders, must have little of the Israeli interference. Druzen in Sweida fear that the most recent interventions increase the already tense situation in their region. Syrian state media announced on Wednesday afternoon that a cease-fire would have been reached between the government and Druze leaders in Sweida. This was confirmed by druze leader Yousef Jarbou. Another Druze leader, Hikmat Al-Hijri,, however, called for a continuation of the battle until Sweida is ‘completely liberated’.
Israel threatened to continue his attacks on Wednesday if Syrian government forces do not withdraw from Sweida. In its attacks on Syria, the Israeli government is encouraged by Druze leaders in northern Israel. “The regime must be forced to withdraw from Sweida. This is a struggle for the survival of the Druzzian community,” said Druzen leader in Israel Muwaffaq Tarif.
New escalation
The attacks on Damascus are a new escalation in Israel’s attacks on Syria since the new government of former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. By presenting the new government as a threat to Israel and the Syrian Druzen, by pointing to the jihadist past of Al-Sharaa, Israel hopes to expand his sphere of influence in southern Syria.
Immediately after the fall of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, on December 8 last year, Israel occupied a new piece of Syrian territory and built military bases there. It also carried out countless bombing. Last February, Netanyahu announced that he will not allow the troops of the new Syrian government to come to the south of Damascus, and that he wanted to make the southern provinces a ‘demilitarized zone’.
Secretary-General António Guterres of the United Nations said he is “worried” about the Israeli air strikes on Syrian territory. He calls on Israel to “remember violations of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.” Earlier, another high UN official had said that Israel is threatening the political transition in Syria.
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The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke on Wednesday in a statement of a “systematic Israeli policy to stimulate tension and chaos and to undermine safety in Syria”. It also called the attack a “flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law”.
Due to the intensified Israeli attacks on Syria, a possible rapprochement between the new administration of Syria and Israel, where US President Donald Trump hopes, is further out of sight. Previously, the Syrian authorities had called such a rapprochement ‘premature’, but according to various sources there were indeed conversations.
Conscription
For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the attacks on Syria, after earlier the war with Iran, offer another distraction from the corruption cases that run against him. On Netanyahu’s request, his testimony ended early in one of those cases on Wednesday morning because of ‘security reasons’.
In the meantime, Netanyahu’s government coalition has lost its majority in the Israeli parliament. The Ultra-Orthodox Party Shas left the cabinet on Wednesday out of dissatisfaction with a bill that extends conscription, so that ultra-orthodox-Jewish students must also report to the front. Previously, they were exempt from conscription.
The departure of SHAS has no direct consequences for Netanyahu. The party has announced that it will not undermine the coalition, the government will not drop and will also continue to vote for other legislative proposals from the government. Earlier this week, two other Ultra-Orthodox parties already left the Israeli coalition.