Israel Says It Will Defend Druze as New Syrian Government Seeks More Control

The announcement by the prime minister’s office came as the Syrian government dealt with the Kurds and fought with the Alawites.

Israeli army humvees move in the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on Dec. 21, 2024. Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images

Israel has said it will defend the Druze minority in southern Syria.

The announcement comes in response to the new Syrian government’s treatment of the Alawites minority group.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed what happened with the Alawites in recent days in coastal areas a “massacre of civilians.”

Spokesman David Mencer, in a press briefing on March 10, said, “When it comes to the Druze, Israel is prepared to defend, if needed, the Druze population in Syria from the forces of the new regime. We will not allow any harm to the Druze population.”

The Druze, who practice a minority religion that originated as an offshoot of Islam, also have communities in Israel and Lebanon. The Israeli Druze population includes 24,000 living in the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied during 1967’s Six-Day War and later annexed, an annexation the United States recognizes but most of the international community does not.

Israel has good relations with its own Druze population, many of whom serve in the Israeli army.

The Druze had aligned themselves with the Assad regime during its half-century in power and have been uncertain about what the regime change would mean for them. Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad is an Alawite. They follow an offshoot branch of Shia Islam with beliefs that incorporate Gnostic, Christian, and esoteric knowledge.

The statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office comes as the new Syrian regime struggles to establish its control over significant chunks of the nation dominated by various ethnic and religious minorities.

Unclear is the impact on Syria’s Druze of the regime’s March 10 deal with the Kurdish-dominated and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hitherto controlling Syria’s oil-rich northeast.

The Kurds agreed to integrate “all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria into the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, airports, and oil and gas fields.”

And unconfirmed reports suggested the government had reached a similar deal in the Druze-majority Suwayda province in the south, the Times of Israel reported on March 11.

Druze security forces would come under the control of the Syrian Interior Ministry, and the police force would come from the local community but the provincial governor and police chief would not. Druze could serve in the civil administration.

The Suwayda province borders Jordan but not Israel.

The new Syrian government was formed by members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist group designated as a foreign terror organization by the U.S. government. It was once aligned with Al Qaeda and briefly, ISIS terrorist groups before splitting from both.

The new Syrian government, in recent fighting to secure the coastal areas where most of the Alawites live, had killed 973 civilians and 250 Alawite fighters, while more than 230 government security forces were also killed, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Smoke rises while members of the Syrian forces ride on a vehicle as they battle against a nascent insurgency by fighters from ousted leader Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, in Latakia, Syria, on March 7, 2025. Karam al-Masri/Reuters

Many see the actions against the Alawites as reprisals.

Social media accounts showed videos purportedly of Syrian government troops loading Alawites into pickup trucks and stomping on them, of a regime member taunting al-Assad as the former president’s hometown goes up in flames in the background, and of regime soldiers executing Alawites in the street.

The Syrian government has said it will investigate.

Mencer said Israel had urged caution when the HTS force suddenly toppled the Assad regime in Damascus in December.

“Israel cautioned the world to judge Syria’s new regime by their actions rather than by their words. And unfortunately, here it is: the brutality of Jihadist rule and Jihadi terrorism.

“Israel will not tolerate the presence of terrorist elements and armed forces that post a threat to our citizens in the security area in southern Syria, and attempts by the regime’s forces and terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the region will be thwarted.”

Fighters with the new Syrian government load a rocket launcher in Baniyas, Syria, on March 7, 2025. Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images

When the Assad regime fell, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moved quickly into northern Syria. It secured Syrian military bases near the border, including on the strategic Mt. Hermon so that they couldn’t be seized by hostile forces. It also occupied a 155-square-mile demilitarized zone that the U.N. had maintained for 50 years.

The IDF carried out wide-ranging strikes aimed at destroying as much of the Assad regime’s abandoned arms and military infrastructure as possible to deny it to terrorist groups.

Israel’s Defense Ministry instructed the military on March 8 to prepare to defend Jaramana, a Druze-majority city in the Damascus suburbs.

The IDF on March 11 said that overnight, it had targeted military headquarters and sites containing weapons and equipment in south Syria.

On March 9, the Israeli government approved a five-year plan worth approximately $1.1 billion to resolve housing and planning issues afflicting the Druze and Circassian minorities in northern Israel, who number about 150,000 and 5,000 respectively.

The government also announced plans that will soon allow Syrian Druze to work in Israeli towns in the Golan Heights, according to the Times of Israel.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.