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Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS-IL on 9 December, 2024
Israel Supports Syria’s Kurds Amid Turkish-Backed Attacks
Jerusalem, 9 December, 2024 (TPS-IL) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday spoke out in support of Syria’s ethnic Kurdish minority, which faces attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed Islamist groups.
“The attacks on the Kurds, as we saw yesterday in Manbij, must stop,” said Sa’ar while briefing reporters. He was referring to a Kurdish-controlled city in northern Syria taken over by Syrian Islamist rebels with Turkish air support.
Sa’ar also tweeted on Monday that Israel has raised the Kurdish issue with the U.S. administration and other countries, saying “The international community has a moral obligation toward those who fought bravely against ISIS and are also a stabilizing force in Syria!”
Roughly two million Kurds live in Syria, mostly in northern regions near the Turkish border. In recent days of fighting, more than 100,000 Kurds have been reportedly displaced. Syrian-Kurdish forces, as part of a U.S.-supported coalition, led the campaign against Islamic State in 2015-2017, and have continued fighting them since.
Sa’ar’s comments come as Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israel Defense Forces to reach out to Syria’s ethnic communities. Security officials have already enlisted senior Israeli Druze figures to help build bridges with the Syrian Druze.
The head of the Israeli army’s Intelligence Directorate, Maj.-Gen. Shlomi Bender, met with Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community on Sunday, according to Lt.- Col. Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Force’s Arabic spokesperson.
An estimated 700,000-800,000 Druze live in Syria, mostly in southwestern areas near Israel and Jordan. They make up around four percent of the Syrian population.
Israel’s Druze community of 152,000 trace their ancestry back to the Biblical figure Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Israeli Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.” The Druze speak Arabic but are not Muslim and are very secretive about their religious beliefs.
The Druze living in the Galilee and Mount Carmel areas sided with the Jews in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence, opted to be part of Israeli society and established themselves in all areas of public life.
When Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, the Golan Druze refused Israeli offers of citizenship, believing Syria would recapture the plateau. But attitudes have changed since the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011.
Katz also ordered the army to prevent Iran and Hezbollah from renewing arms smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon and to destroy strategic weapons that could fall into rebel hands.
Israel took control of the 235 sq km buffer zone –including the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon, a strategic peak in the Golan Heights — to prevent Syrian rebels from approaching the border as the regime of Bashar Assad collapsed on Sunday.
The move into the demilitarized zone was coordinated with peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, which has been monitoring an Israeli-Syrian ceasefire since 1974.
The Israeli Air Force struck military airfields, weapons depots and munitions factories across southern Syria and around Damascus to prevent them from falling into rebel hands. Targets included the Mezzeh and Khalkalah military airports in the Damascus area, which were used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hezbollah.
The strikes also reportedly destroyed facilities producing chemical weapons and precision missiles.
