Israel bombs Syria hours after controversial Israeli Druze leader appeals for action

Israel carried out a drone strike near the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday, hours after a controversial Israeli Druze leader pressed the Israeli government to "act" in the interests of the minority religious group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Israel Katz, said in a joint statement that a drone strike targeted an "extremist group" south of Damascus as it prepared to carry out an attack on members of the Druze community in the Syrian town of Sahnaya.

Netanyahu said the strike was a "warning operation" and that "a stern message was conveyed to the Syrian regime: Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze".

Hours earlier, Mowafaq Tarif, a controversial Druze leader based in Israel who maintains close ties with the Israeli government, called on: "Israel, the Jews around the world and the international community to act now, immediately, to prevent a massacre."

"Israel must not stand by in the face of events unfolding as we speak," he said. "Israeli leaders, you must take on the burden of proof and action," he added.

Israel has a small Druze community and there are also some 24,000 Druze living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights which it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day war.

Israel annexed the territory in 1981, a move that has not been recognised by most countries or the United Nations.

Violence had erupted in Syria's predominantly Druze area of Jaramana, near Damascus, earlier this week between members of the Druze community and Sunni Muslim gunmen.

More than a dozen people were killed after an audio recording - attributed to a person from the Druze community - went viral in which insults were directed towards the Prophet Muhammad and other Islamic religious figures.

The Syrian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that it was investigating the origin of the recording and called for calm.

Following Tuesday's killings, Syria's Grand Mufti, Osama al-Rifai, ordered any calls for revenge or retaliation to end, and called the spilling of any Syrian blood "haram" (forbidden).

"Only by extinguishing strife will Syrian blood be spared," he said.

However, hours after Wednesday's drone strike, Tarif told a group of his supporters in Israel that he believed "a shift is coming soon".

"The state of Israel, the army, and the world stand with us," he said.

'Israel seeks to exploit the Druze'

Wednesday's attack is Israel’s latest intervention in Syria since the government of Bashar al-Assad was toppled late last year by opposition fighters led by the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group.

Since HTS disbanded, Syria's new government has sought to rebuild ties with the country's disparate religious and ethnic groups, as well as strengthen diplomatic ties.

In neighbouring Lebanon, still reeling from its year-long war with Israel, Waleed Jumblatt, a political leader from the country's Druze community, also appealed for calm but rejected Israeli interference in Syria.

"Israel seeks to exploit the Druze to create internal strife in Syria," he said in remarks reported by Al Jazeera Arabic.

"We need a unified Syria and Israel wants to displace and exploit the Druze."

Turkey, seen as Damascus' closest ally, also condemned the drone strike and accused Israel of trying to further ignite turmoil in the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that Israeli attacks were an unacceptable provocation and that he would meet US President Donald Trump face-to-face as they "understand each other" regarding policies in Syria.

"On issues we think differently, our search for a compromise on a reasonable basis will surely continue," he said, praising their previous contacts as "sincere, fruitful and friendly".

For months, Israel has lobbied the US to keep Syria weak and decentralised, and on Tuesday Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed that the war on Gaza would only end when "hundreds of thousands" of Palestinians are forcibly displaced and Syria is dismembered.