IDF carries out ‘warning’ strike on Syrian regime forces after new ‘attack on Druze civilians’

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck infrastructure sites belonging to the Syrian regime overnight, following attacks on Druze civilians in the south.

“We will not allow the Syrian regime to exploit our war against Iran and Hezbollah to harm the Druze. If necessary, we will strike with greater force,” warned Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz.

He said that the strikes on infrastructure in the as-Suwaydah area were a “direct response to harm against the Druze population in southern Syria.”

“The Prime Minister and I have made it clear and have warned: whoever harms the Druze in Syria, the brothers of our Druze brothers in Israel, will be harmed. We will continue to act with determination and strength on all fronts in order to protect our allies and ensure Israel’s security,” Katz said in a statement on Friday morning.

Last July, Syrian regime forces participated in an invasion and massacre launched by Bedouin gunmen against Druze civilians in the area surrounding Suwaydah. According to data from a Druze group in Israel cited by Ynet News, some 2,000 Syrian Druze were killed, 600 were abducted or went missing, and hundreds of thousands were displaced in the clashes.

At the time, Israel carried out several airstrikes in Syria to stop the massacre. Since then, the situation has remained tense, and the Suwaydah area has remained the last region not integrated into the new state structure under the leadership of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

According to the IDF, the strikes on Thursday hit “a command center and weapons in military compounds,” and Israel “continues to monitor developments in southern Syria and will operate in accordance with directives from the political echelon.”

Neither the IDF’s nor Katz’s statement added any detail regarding the incidents that caused the strikes.

Ynet News reported that the “National Guard” in Suwaydah, a Druze-Syrian group supported by the Druze leader Hikmat al-Hijri, stated that regime forces carried out “a series of attacks” beginning on Wednesday, including kidnappings, rocket attacks, and drone strikes against members of the Druze community.

Seven people were killed, four were wounded, and 19 were abducted, the statement said. In another announcement, the group said it had come under gunfire from regime forces west of Suwaydah, and that its troops were returning fire.

IDF sources speaking to Ynet News said that fewer than seven people were killed, adding that they had no knowledge of a drone strike. However, they said the Israeli strikes were a warning intended to prevent the development of another attack against the Syrian Druze under the cover of the war against Iran.

An intercepted Iranian ballistic missile fell nearly intact in the Quneitra countryside, southern Syria. pic.twitter.com/p65wVZOgwu

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) March 19, 2026

Syria has been among the few countries in the region that have not been directly involved in the war, despite several impacts of ballistic missiles and shrapnel that targeted either Israel or U.S. bases in neighboring Jordan.

Last week, Reuters cited five informed sources who said the U.S. “has encouraged Syria to consider sending forces into eastern Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah, but Damascus ​is reluctant to embark on such a mission for fear of being sucked into the war in the Middle East and inflaming sectarian tensions.”

However, the report was denied by the U.S. envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who wrote on 𝕏 : “Reporting regarding the United States encouraging Syria to send forces into Lebanon is false and inaccurate.”

Charles Lister, director of the Syria Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., agreed.

“I’m told by multiple sources that this story is false & no such messages have been conveyed to Syria. It makes no sense anyway, and runs against everything else the [U.S. government] has invested in stabilizing Syria over the past year+,” he wrote on 𝕏.

According to the report, 10 sources, including six Syrian officials, said that the Syrian government of former Islamist terror leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been weighing an operation to attack Hezbollah. Sharaa and his forces battled Hezbollah for several years during the Syrian Civil War, in which Iran supported the Assad regime with several of its proxy groups.

Damascus has deployed thousands of troops to the mountainous Lebanese border since early February in what it says are “defensive” moves. This week, Syrian sources told the Lebanese newspaper Nidaa al-Watan that the Syrian army is monitoring increased movement by Hezbollah in the same sector and has been communicating with the Lebanese army about it.

However, the sources say the Syrian army wants to stay out of the broader war gripping the region and prefers instead to focus on strengthening its control over border areas rather than letting the situation escalate.