A delegation of Druze religious elders from Syria crossed into Israel on Friday for the first such visit in more than 50 years, underscoring Israel's backing for the community amid growing tensions with the new government in Damascus.
Around 100 Druze sheikhs from villages on the slope of Mount Hermon in Syria, overlooked by the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, are due to visit shrines including sites held to be the tomb of prophet Shuayb, west of Tiberias, in the Lower Galilee.
After entering the Golan Heights, cheered by Druze in traditional black clothes and white and red head dress, some waving the white, blue, yellow, red and green flag of the Druze, they travelled by bus to the town of Julis in Israel to meet Mowafaq Tarif, spiritual leader of the group in Israel.
"Feeling proud and honored to visit here. We are one family and brothers," said Nazeh Rakab, from Hadar in Syria, as he watched the welcome ceremony in Julis, where hundreds gathered to greet the delegation waving Druze flags, with some firing into the air from the rooftops in celebration.
The Druze, an Arab minority who practice a religion originally derived from Islam, live in an area straddling Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the Golan Heights, connected across the borders by a web of kinship ties.
In Israel, many serve in the military and police, including during the war in Gaza, and some have reached high rank.
Condemnation
The visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in Israel, according to a source close to the delegation, but has been met with opposition from other Druze in Syria.
The minority accounts for about three percent of Syria's population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.
Other residents of Hadar condemned the trip, saying in a statement that the clerics "represent only themselves".
They accused Israel of "exploiting this religious visit as a tool to sow division" and of "seeking to use the Druze community as a defensive line to achieve its expansionist interests in southern Syria".
Friday's visit is intended to be a purely religious occasion but its political significance was underscored by Israeli airstrikes on what Israel described as command centers of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement in Damascus a day earlier.
Israeli ministers have expressed deep misgivings about the new government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, describing his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement as an extremist group. The group was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda but later renounced the connection.
On Thursday, Israel, which has been urging support for the Druze following the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December, sent truckloads of aid including oil, flour, salt and sugar, most to the Sweida.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Syrian Druze would be allowed to enter and work in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war, and Israel has also said it would protect Druze in Syria if needed.
In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Katz said his country would not allow Syria's new rulers "to harm the Druze".
Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz's warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.
