Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends the closing ceremony of the Syrian National Dialogue Conference at the presidential palace in Damascus, Feb. 25, 2025
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces carried out an overnight attack “near the presidential palace in Damascus” on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem said on Friday.
“This is a clear message to the Syrian regime,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement, adding, “We will not allow [Syrian regime] forces to move south of Damascus or to pose any danger to the Druze community.”
The strike came a day after Jerusalem warned Damascus that it expected it to prevent sectarian attacks on the country’s Druze community.
In a post on social media, Katz stated, “The overnight Air Force strike on the presidential palace in Damascus, which the prime minister and I ordered, is a clear warning message to Syria’s regime.
“When [Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa] wakes up in the morning and sees the results of the Air Force attack, he’ll understand very well that Israel is determined to prevent harm to Syria’s Druze,” said Katz.
“It is his responsibility to protect the Druze in the suburbs of Damascus from attacks by jihadist rioters and to allow the hundreds of thousands of Druze throughout Suwayda and Jabal al-Druze to defend themselves — and not to send jihadist forces into their communities,” he added.
“It is our duty to protect the Druze in Syria from harm, for the sake of our Druze brothers in Israel, their loyalty to the state and their tremendous contribution to Israel’s security,” Katz wrote.
On Thursday, the IDF said it was “prepared to prevent the infiltration of hostile elements into the area and nearby Druze villages” in Syria. It added, “The IDF continues to monitor developments closely and maintains a high level of readiness for potential defense scenarios.
“Earlier today, two Syrian-Druze civilians were evacuated into Israel for medical treatment after sustaining injuries in Syrian territory. They were transported to Ziv Medical Center in Safed,” the military also revealed.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military attacked a Syrian Sunni Islamist group preparing to target Druze in the Rif Dimashq (“Damascus Suburb”) Governorate.
“The IDF carried out a warning operation and struck an organization of an extremist group that was preparing to continue attacks against the Druze population” of Syria, Netanyahu and Katz said in a statement.
The Jewish state had conveyed a “stern message to the Syrian regime: Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze,” the two leaders added.
Earlier that day, the spiritual leader of the Israeli Druze community, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, urged the Jewish state to help his brethren in Syria.
“This moment, the eyes and hearts of the Druze community are turned toward the harm being done to Druze villages around Damascus,” he wrote, calling on “the State of Israel, the international community and the Jewish people to act now, immediately, to prevent a mass slaughter.
“The State of Israel must not stand by as mere spectators in light of what is happening right now in Syria,” added the Druze sheikh in his missive.
Mass protests by Israeli Druze, urging their government to act across the northern border, were halted overnight on Thursday after Tarif called on “all Druze to return to their homes” as talks continued with Jerusalem.
The protesters had blocked roads, and dozens of demonstrators rallied near Netanyahu’s private home in the coastal city of Caesarea.
The latest deadly clashes in Syria were sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze man who purportedly cursed the prophet Mohammed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitor with links to opposition groups, said on Thursday that more than 100 people were killed in the clashes, including nine who were executed.
The U.S. State Department, in a statement on Thursday, slammed the violence and “inflammatory rhetoric” against the Druze as “reprehensible and unacceptable.
“The interim authorities must stop the fighting, hold perpetrators of violence and civilian harm accountable for their actions, and ensure the security of all Syrians,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
Last month, Netanyahu and Katz warned the government in Damascus that if it harmed the Druze community, Israel would retaliate militarily.
“We will not allow the terrorist regime of radical Islam in Syria to harm the Druze. We have instructed the IDF to prepare and deliver a harsh and clear warning: If the regime harms the Druze, it will be harmed by us,” the two Israeli leaders said in a statement issued on March 1.
“We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all necessary measures to ensure their safety,” the statement added.
Netanyahu and Katz instructed the military to prepare to defend the city of Jaramana, located about 1.8 miles southeast of Damascus, in the Rif Dimashq Governorate on the Ghouta plain.
On March 10, Katz slammed reports of mass killings and other atrocities attributed to the country’s new Sunni Islamist government.
De facto Syrian leader al-Sharaa “took off his jalabiya, put on a suit, and presented a moderate facade,” he said, but now “has removed the mask, revealing his true face: a jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaeda school, committing atrocities against the Alawite civilian population.”
Al-Sharaa was a leading figure in Al-Qaeda before founding Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the overthrow of the Assad regime last year.
