Israeli military strike near Syrian presidential palace after warning of sectarian attacks
Damascus (Syria): Israeli air force attacked near the Syrian presidential palace after warning Syrian authorities not to warn villages where minorities live in southern Syria.
The strike came days after a clash between pro-Suri government gunmen and fighters belonging to the Druze minority near the capital Damascus. The conflict has killed or injured dozens of people.
The early strike on Friday was Israel’s second strike in Syria this week, and attacks on areas close to the president’s palace seemed to send a strong warning to Syria’s new leader, mostly composed of Islamic groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
On Thursday, Syria's Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri severely criticized the Syrian government for its “unreasonable genocide attack” against ethnic minority communities.
Israeli troops said in a statement that the fighter jets hit near the palace of Damascus President Hussein al-Sharaa. It has no more details.
Pro-government Syrian media said the strike attacked the People's Palace on the hill overlooking the city.
The clash broke out on Monday midnight after a clip of voices scattered on social media that criticized the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The audio is attributed to Rev. Druze. But Pastor Marwan Kiwan said in a video posted on social media that he was not responsible for the audio, which angered many Sunni Muslims.
Syria's Ministry of Information said 11 members of the country were killed in two separate attacks, while British war monitoring Syria's human rights observers said 56 people in the outskirts of Jaramana, Damascus in Sahnaya and Druze-Majority, were killed in the conflict, including local gunmen and security forces.
The Druze religious sect is a minority group, originally a branch of Ismailism in the 10th century, a branch of Shia Islam. More than half of the approximately one million druzes live in Syria, mainly in the southern Swedish province and some suburbs of Damascus.
Most of Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied from Syria during the Middle East War in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
