Jerusalem, May 1 (EFE) .- Israeli minister of defense, Israel Katz, warned the Syrian interim president, Ahmed al Sharaa, that his country will respond “with great severity” if “the attacks against the Druss in Syria do not cease.”
In a statement sent by his department, Katz states that he, together with Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, on Wednesday, instructions to the army to carry out “several warning attacks against extremist elements.”
This Wednesday, Israel bombed the Syrian town of Ashrafieh Sahnaya, on the outskirts of Damascus, amid strong armed clashes between state security forces and groups allegedly linked to the Drusa minority.
According to the defense note, “a clear message to the Syrian regime was transmitted that he is responsible for preventing attacks.”
“We are committed to protecting the Druzos and we are currently monitoring what is happening. If the attacks against the drusites resume and the regime does not prevent them, we will respond very much severity,” says the note.
Armed groups linked to the Drusa community of Syria star in Tuesday, intense clashes with the state security forces, which leave dozens of dead and have caused an Israeli intervention in favor of the religious minority.
Israel has occupied since 1967 the high Golán Syrians, located in the border area between the two countries and that Israel annexed unilaterally in 1981. There are 24,000 members of the Drusa minority with some 30,000 Israeli.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights raised this Thursday to 101 the number of deaths during the armed clashes that occurred in the last two days in southern Syria, without the authorities having offered for the moment an official balance of victims.
A good part of the deaths were recorded in Ashrafieh Sahnaya, on the outskirts of Damascus, where he lost his twenties of general security members and 14 Druss militia, according to a statement from the Observatory, which counts violence in Syria from the conflict that exploded in 2011. Efe
