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As tensions mount on the border between Israel and Syria due to the Syrian civil war, a group of Druze attacked an Israeli military ambulance in the Golan Heights today which held two wounded Syrians. The two were identified only as “Syrian fighters” and one died.
Druze who live in the Golan Heights are in a precarious situation to say the least. The minority Arab religious sect has a small population divided almost entirely between Israel and Syria, with a native Israeli population in the Galilee and one in the Golan which was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War. The remaining members of the Druze population live in Syria.
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The Druze of the Golan have always been concerned with their families across the border in Syria, from whom they have been separated for almost 50 years. But now their concerns have been heightened because of how their Syrian coreligionists have been caught in the middle of a three way Syrian civil war which includes local rebels and terrorists from Islamic State. One Druze village in Western Syria is in danger of being overrun by IS.
Israel has been trying to do what it can to help Syrian civilians caught in the war and has provided the use of temporary military field hospitals which the IDF established in the Golan. But Druze who live in Israel were not happy to see whoever was in the ambulance receive aid in Israel.
So a mob attacked the ambulance and threw rocks at it causing major damage. Israeli media reports described the attack as a lynch.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said about the attack, “This is a very grave incident. We will not permit anybody to take the law into their own hands, and we will not allow anyone to hamper Israeli soldiers in the course of their duty.”
“I call on Druze leaders to act immediately to calm tensions, ” he added.
