CAIRO: Israel’s military said on Saturday its forces deployed in southern Syria were ready to protect the Druze minority, following recent sectarian clashes.
The Israeli army “is deployed in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages,” the military said in a statement, without specifying whether this was a new deployment or elaborating on the number of troops on the ground.
A Druze official in Sweida province, the heartland of Syria’s Druze community, said there had been “no deployment of Israeli soldiers there.”
Israel’s troop presence is “reportedly confined to Quneitra province” near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, where the army had “established positions” following the ousting of longtime president Bashar Assad in December, the official added.
After deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus earlier this week, Israel has conducted multiple strikes it says were meant to protect the Druze community and warned Syria’s Islamist rulers against harming the minority group.
On Saturday the Israeli military said that “five Syrian Druze citizens were evacuated to receive medical treatment in Israel overnight” after sustaining injuries on Syrian territory.
The Druze official in Sweida said they had been wounded “in clashes in Sahnaya,” the site of recent sectarian violence near Damascus.
They were “afraid of being sent to hospitals in Damascus, out of fear of being detained,” the official added.
According to army statements, a total of 15 Syrian Druze have been admitted to hospital in Israel since the beginning of the week.
Israel launched more than 20 air strikes inside Syria late Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, following an attack near the presidential palace in Damascus, which the authorities condemned as a “dangerous escalation.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel will respond forcefully if Syria’s new government fails to protect the Druze minority.
The Israeli strikes came after Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed their loyalty to Damascus, following clashes also involving government-affiliated groups.
The Observatory monitor said more than 100 people were killed in the clashes in Sahnaya and Jaramana, both near Damascus, and in Sweida province.
Israel military says deployed in southern Syria in support of Druze
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Israel military says deployed in southern Syria in support of Druze
- Israel's military said on Saturday its forces deployed in southern Syria were ready to protect the Druze minority, following recent sectarian clashes.
Death toll in Iran protests over 3,000, rights group says
- The protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule
- President Donald Trump, who had threatened ‘very strong action’ if Iran executed protesters, said Tehran’s leaders had called off mass hangings
DUBAI: More than 3,000 people have died in Iran’s nationwide protests, rights activists said on Saturday, while a “very slight rise” in Internet activity was reported in the country after an eight-day blackout.
The US-based HRANA group said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, after residents said the crackdown appeared to have broadly quelled protests for now and state media reported more arrests.
The capital Tehran has been comparatively quiet for four days, said several residents reached by Reuters. Drones were flying over the city, but there were no signs of major protests on Thursday or Friday, said the residents, who asked not to be identified for their safety.
A resident of a northern city on the Caspian Sea said the streets there also appeared calm.
The protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic, culminating in mass violence late last week. According to opposition groups and an Iranian official, more than 2,000 people were killed in the worst domestic unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Metrics show a very slight rise in Internet connectivity in #Iran this morning” after 200 hours of shutdown, the Internet monitoring group NetBlocks posted on X. Connectivity remained around 2 percent of ordinary levels, it said.
A few Iranians overseas said on social media that they had been able to message users living inside Iran early on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump, who had threatened “very strong action” if Iran executed protesters, said Tehran’s leaders had called off mass hangings.
“I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been canceled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” he posted on social media.
Iran had not announced plans for such executions or said it had canceled them.
Indian students and pilgrims returning from Iran said they were largely confined to their accommodations while in the country, unable to communicate with their families back home.
“We only heard stories of violent protests, and one man jumped in front of our car holding a burning baton, shouting something in the local language, with anger visible in his eyes,” said Z Syeda, a third-year medical student at a university in Tehran.
India’s External Affairs Ministry said on Friday that commercial flights were available and that New Delhi would take steps to secure the safety and welfare of Indian nationals.
