Syria and the leaders of the Druze religious minority signed a ceasefire agreement Wednesday following Israeli airstrikes in Damascus.
The ceasefire was announced on Syrian state TV on Wednesday by Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou. The deal is the second of its kind in as many days, with the previous ceasefire falling apart shortly after it was announced on Tuesday.
The latest announcement came immediately after Israel’s bombing of downtown Damascus, the Syrian capital.
According to the Israeli military, the bombing hit Syria’s military infrastructure, including the general staff compound in Damascus. Israel also reportedly hit Syria’s presidential palace.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the strikes in an X post on Wednesday, attaching a video of a Syrian news report reacting to the bombing.
“The painful blows have begun,” he wrote.
The Syrian Health Ministry confirmed that at least one person was killed and 28 were injured.
Wednesday’s strikes follow two days of Israeli attacks in southern Syria, where tensions between the new Syrian regime and the Druze people brought Tel Aviv into the fray. The Druze minority is concentrated in the southern provinces of Syria, neighboring the Golan Heights, occupied by the Israeli military.
Israel has vowed to protect the Druze in southern Syria, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring on Tuesday that his country is “committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherly alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, and their familial and historical ties to the Druze in Syria.”
Additionally, Israel has demanded that Syria implement a demilitarized zone in the south, an order the new regime has rejected. Syrian leaders have also criticized the Israeli military for its occupation of the Golan Heights, which it sees as sovereign Syrian territory.
Since taking power this year, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has tried to consolidate his country’s ethnic and religious groups to support the new regime. However, the Druze have refused to disarm their militias and have insisted on maintaining relative independence.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.