After the escalation between Sunni clans and drusen, Israel again bombies goals in Syria. The United States turns on, but what goal Benjamin Netanyahu really pursues with his military operation?
They were large explosions that came as a surprise to the population in Damascus on Wednesday. At the Arabian television station Al Jazeera, spectators were able to follow live how the Israeli army attacked the Syrian Ministry of Defense. Large columns of smoke got into the air, debris rushed to passing cars, people ran away, screams.
It was an attack that hit Syria in the middle of the heart. In the middle of the broad day, Israel recalled the leadership and the population that they are at the mercy of attacks from the highly equipped neighboring country. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified the attacks by wanting to protect the religious minority of the Drusen. Previously, the violence between Drusian and Sunni Bedouin clans in the south of the country escalated, whereby there were numerous civilian victims. But that is probably only half the truth.
After the fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the new Islamist leadership is still weakened, its power in the country still has to consolidate. Netanyahu is not interested in a few and strong Syria, even less if it is ruled by Islamists. As a result, Israel has repeatedly attacked military goals of the new Syrian leadership for months.
Almost 14 years of civil war left deep scars in the country. Syria is a puzzle from different ethnic groups and religious denominations that often distrust each other and that all strive for as much autonomy as possible.
Foreign Minister Johann WadePhul (CDU) condemned the attacks on the Drusian minority on Thursday. The high number of civilian victims in the province of Suwaida is “shocking”, explained the CDU politician. He called on the Syrian transitional government to “protect its citizens from violence regardless of denomination or ethnicity”.
In the southern Syrian province of Suwaida, bloody battles occurred on Sunday and in the days after the days of the Islamic minority of the Drusen and Sunni Bedouins, where more than 500 people were killed, according to T-online information. When Syrian government forces moved into the city of Suwaida, the Israeli army flew air strikes against Syria – according to Israeli information, the druses should be protected. A ceasefire was agreed on Wednesday evening.
In the interests of the new Syrian ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa, it is actually that there is no bloody fighting again. He also promised to protect the Drusian minority on Thursday. After all, he would like to gain trust internationally to get support from the West to reconstruction Syria. To do this, he has to clear out the reservations that exist because of his past, because Al-Sharaa was a member of the Islamist terrorist organizations al-Qaida and al-Nusra.
But the past few months have also shown that the new Syrian leadership has problems to keep even the militias under control with them. For example, there were fights with the remains of Assad’s army; In March, Islamist fighters committed a massacre of hundreds of Alawites.
