The Israeli army struck targets in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday, as Israel claims its military intervention aims to protect the Syrian Druze minority.
“The IDF struck the entrance of the Syrian regime’s military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria,” the Israel Defense Forces said. Two Israeli attacks were reported in the area.
It’s the third day in a row that Israel launched airstrikes on Syria.
“The warnings to Damascus have ended — now painful blows will come,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media platform X.
Clashes between Bedouin Sunni tribes and the Druze community broke out in the southern Syrian province of Suweida on Sunday. On Monday, the Syrian government deployed troops to Suweida, with Syria’s military then being drawn into fighting with the Druze militias.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights organization said at least 300 people have been killed in southern Syria since the clashes broke out on Sunday.
The Druze are a small ethno-religious group in the Middle East who primarily live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
Amid the clashes, Druze in Israel have been attempting to enter Syria to help Druze militia groups, with members of the Syrian Druze community then attempting to go into Israel.
The Israeli military strikes on Syria come as Israel expresses distrust towards the Islamist-influenced Syrian government of Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Al-Sharaa’s government came into power after Syrian rebels ousted Bashar Assad, whose family had maintained an iron-grip on Syria for decades. Demonstrations against the Assad regime in 2011 sparked the Syrian civil war.
