IDF strikes Syrian regime military HQ over threat to Druze in Sweida

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday attacked the entrance to the Syrian regime’s military headquarters in the Damascus area in response to reports of atrocities against local Druze residents.

“The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime’s actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria,” the military said. “In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios.”

“Air Force aircraft have attacked over the past 24 hours—and continue to strike—tanks, rocket launchers, combat equipment and pickups armed with heavy machine guns making their way to the Sweida area of southern Syria,” the IDF announced in a separate statement.

“Additionally, access routes were attacked to establish blockades in the area,” according to the military.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that IDF strikes against Syrian regime forces near Sweida would intensify if threats to the Druze population persist.

“The Syrian regime must leave the Druze in Sweida alone and withdraw its forces,” Katz stated. He emphasized that Israel will not abandon the Druze community and will enforce its disarmament policy in the area.

Katz warned that if Damascus fails to heed Israel’s warnings, military responses will escalate. “The IDF will continue to strike until regime forces withdraw—and will soon raise the level of its responses if the message is not understood,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based war monitor, updated the death toll from the clashes in southern Syria to 248 as of Wednesday.

SOHR, long affiliated with the Syrian opposition, also reported widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, including churches and residential homes, describing government-backed assaults as attacks on the “dignity and property” of Druze residents in the Sweida region.

The IDF has bolstered its presence along the Israel-Syria border with the deployment of three additional companies amid concerns that members of Israel’s Druze community may attempt to cross into Syria en masse.

According to Army Radio, the reinforcements include two new units—one from the Border Police and another from the Golani Brigade’s training base—joining a Border Police company already deployed to the area on Tuesday. Military police forces are also operating along the border.

Israeli Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif revealed in a Wednesday interview with Ynet that he had met a day earlier with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz, stating that dialogue was ongoing and expressing hope that Israeli strikes would intensify.

Druze community leaders on Wednesday announced an immediate general strike and several “days of rage” in light of “the massacre taking place in Syria.”

“Silence and standing by are not possible,” Druze leaders said, calling on local community members to prepare to cross into Syria to offer assistance. Shortly after, dozens of Druze crossed the border fence but were returned to Israeli territory by IDF soldiers.

Attempts to cross the northern border continued on Thursday, with the IDF confirming that multiple Israeli civilians entered Syrian territory from the area of Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Golan Heights.

“IDF troops are currently operating to safely return the civilians who crossed the border,” the military announced on Thursday afternoon.

At the same time, “dozens” of suspects attempted to enter the territory of the Jewish state from the Hader area in southern Syria, according to the IDF. It said soldiers were operating alongside Israel Border Police officers “to prevent the infiltration and disperse the gathering.”

On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched a series of airstrikes against Syrian government troops in the Sweida area of southern Syria’s Jabal al-Druze (Druze Mountain) region, targeting armored vehicles and convoys sent by Damascus amid deadly sectarian clashes between Druze militias and forces loyal to the Sunni Islamist regime.

The IDF stated that it had struck “armored vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and rocket launchers, as well as access routes, to disrupt their arrival in the area.”

Netanyahu and Katz told the IDF to “immediately strike regime forces and weaponry that were brought into the Sweida area of Syria’s Jabal al-Druze [Druze Mountain] region for regime activity against the Druze,” according to the statement.

Damascus had violated “the demilitarization policy that was decided upon, which prohibits the entry of [regime] forces and arms into southern Syria that could endanger Israel,” it continued.

“Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep fraternal alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, as well as their familial and historical ties to the Druze in Syria,” according to the PMO.

Large columns of Syrian regime forces rolled into Sweida on Tuesday morning, a day after the IDF intervened by striking several tanks attempting to move to the Jabal al-Druze area.

Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, has been documenting atrocities and acts of humiliation by Syrian regime forces against the local Druze community on his X account.

In a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, Chikli compared the violence against the Druze minority to the horrors of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

“The Islamo-Nazis of Al-Sharaa are forcing their victims to bark like dogs before murdering them,” Chikli wrote. “This is the October 7th of the Druze minority in Syria—and it’s simply astonishing to witness the total silence of Western leadership.”

New Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, is a former Al-Qaeda terrorist.

Chikli criticized key international figures, including French President Emmanuel Macron and U.N. officials such as Secretary-General António Guterres and Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, for what he called their silence in the face of such human rights abuses.

Following the overthrow of the Bashar Assad regime in December 2024 by Sunni jihadists, Israel took control of portions of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The move was aimed at creating a security buffer to protect Israeli communities from hostile elements operating in the power vacuum.

During a visit to the Syrian Hermon in January, Katz declared: “The IDF will remain at the summit of the Hermon and the security zone indefinitely to ensure the security of the communities of the Golan Heights and the north, as well as all the residents of Israel.”

Netanyahu has stated that he will not permit forces loyal to al-Sharaa to deploy in the area south of Damascus.