Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has called on the United Nations Security Council to take urgent action following what he described as “ongoing atrocities” against the Druze community in southern Syria.
In a letter addressed to the President of the Security Council on Thursday, Sa’ar expressed Israel’s “deep concern regarding the recent and ongoing atrocities committed in southern Syria, particularly in the Sweida province,” warning that the region’s Druze population has faced “brutal assaults.”
“The world has witnessed evidence of extreme violence perpetrated against Druze civilians in Sweida: killings and executions, defacement of bodies, public humiliation of captured civilians,” Sa’ar wrote. He added that “looting and the destruction and desecration of religious sites have terrorized the local community.”
The letter accuses both President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s regime and its allied militias of direct involvement in the violence. “In many cases, these acts are committed by the regime, its affiliated militias, or both,” he stated. “The Syrian regime is responsible for the atrocities committed in its territory and must be held accountable by the international community.”
Sa’ar also described the attacks as part of a broader pattern of targeted violence against minorities in Syria, citing “massacres of the Alawite community in the northwest, continued aggression toward Kurdish populations in the north, and attacks by jihadist groups, including ISIS, on Christian institutions.”
Warning against international complacency, the Foreign Minister emphasized, “The international community must not remain silent in the face of such targeted violence against minority communities, nor settle for empty condemnations.”
He urged the UN to send a clear and unambiguous message to Damascus. “If the international community wishes to stabilize Syria and the region, it must act firmly and deliver a clear message to the Syrian regime: it will be judged by its actions, not merely by its words.”
Sa’ar requested that the letter be distributed as an official document of the Security Council and noted that a similar letter had also been sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.