Israeli defense minister says military watching Ahmad al-Sharaa from Mt. Hermon

Israel's defense minister warned Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa that Israel “is watching him from the heights of Mt. Hermon,” which Israeli forces captured as part of a buffer zone inside Syria last year, and said Israel struck 40 military targets overnight in southern Syria.

Israel plans to allow members of the Druze minority from Syria to work in Israeli-controlled parts of the Golan Heights as soon as the coming week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Tuesday issued from Mt. Hermon. He stressed that Israel plans to remain in the Syrian buffer zone for an “indefinite period” to ensure that southern Syria remains demilitarized and does not pose a threat to residents of Israel or the Golan Heights.

The Israeli minister’s comments come days after Syrian government-linked forces killed hundreds of civilians in revenge attacks primarily targeting members of the Alawite religious minority. The Druze minority straddles Israel, the Golan Heights, Syria, and Lebanon.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister said Tuesday that deadly sectarian violence in neighboring Syria amounted to “ethnic cleansing” and said Israel was working to prevent a threat along its border from Syria’s new “jihadi regime.”

“Israel is committed to preventing what we saw in Syria this weekend from happening on our border,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said at a news conference in Jerusalem.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said 1,130 people were killed in the clashes, including 830 civilians, most of them from ousted leader Bashar Assad's Alawite community.

Since Islamist-led insurgents ousted Assad in December, Israel has voiced concern that the group could seize Syrian military assets and use them against it, or that instability could spill over into its territory.

Israel has deployed troops inside a buffer zone and vowed to prevent the new Syrian forces from entering the area south of Damascus. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets struck military targets in southern Syria, including radars and equipment.