The Israeli military this morning said it had struck targets in Damascus, particularly near the presidential palace in Syria.
“Recently, Israel Defence Forces fighter jets carried out strikes near Hussein al-Sharaa’s palace in Damascus,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement released in a cable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement announcing that Israel had struck a target near the presidential palace in Damascus.
“This is a clear message to the Syrian regime. We will not allow it to send troops south of Damascus or pose any threat to the Druze community,” the statement, quoted by The Times of Israel, said.
The strikes followed similar actions on Thursday, when the Israeli military attacked the outskirts of Damascus.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Thursday warned the Syrian leadership against further attacks on Druzes.
“I repeat my warning to the head of the Syrian regime,[interim President Ahmed] al-Sharaa: if the attacks on Druze in Syria do not stop, we will respond very strictly,” Katz said, according to his spokesman.
The Druze are a religious minority who now live mainly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.
This week’s sectarian violence began on Tuesday with clashes between Druze and Sunnis in the predominantly Druze neighbourhood of Jaramana, sparked by a voice recording cursing the Prophet Mohammed that Sunni militants suspect was made by a Druze, Reuters wrote.
The strikes reflect Israel’s deep distrust of the Sunni Islamists who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, posing another challenge to interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s efforts to gain control of the divided country.