IDF preference of 1 Druze faction over another led to infighting

Report: Israel began airdropping weapons to Syrian Druze days after Assad’s ouster

Defensive equipment shipments continue, but arms deliveries tapered off as Israel sought talks with Sharaa and grew wary of Syrian Druze infighting, sources tell Washington Post

Israel reportedly started shipping weapons to the Syrian Druze just days after Syria’s Iran-backed President Bashar al-Assad was ousted last December.

The weapons supply peaked in late April, and ebbed starting in August, as Israel grew concerned about infighting among the Syrian Druze, according to a Washington Post report, which cited over two dozen anonymous current and former Israeli, Western and Arab officials, along with Druze militia chiefs.

The supply also came as Israel sought negotiations for a security agreement with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa — head of the jihadi group that ousted Assad — following US President Donald Trump’s first meeting with Sharaa in May, according to the Post.

US officials have privately cautioned Israel against undermining the new Syrian regime, arguing that Sharaa’s opposition to Iran presents a rare opportunity for long sought cooperation between Jerusalem and Damascus.

Israel continues to supply the Syrian Druze with defensive military equipment, such as body armor, and also provides about 3,000 Syrian Druze fighters with monthly salaries ranging from $100 to $200, in what points to an Israeli desire to see the Druze serve as a counterweight to Sharaa’s regime, the Post said.

Israel remains wary of Sharaa due to his jihadist past, and took over the Syrian side of the two countries’ demilitarized buffer zone soon after Assad’s downfall, citing fear that the area would fall into the wrong hands.

An Israeli government official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Post that following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, “Israel is determined to defend our communities on our borders, including the northern border, and to prevent the entrenchment of terrorists and hostile actions against us, to protect our Druze allies, and to ensure that the State of Israel is safe from ground attack and other attacks from the border areas.” The IDF declined to comment.

Israel, home to some 150,000 Druze, has delivered humanitarian aid and carried out strikes in defense of the Syrian Druze in southern Syria’s Sweida amid sectarian bloodshed there that saw Druze clash with Bedouin tribal and government forces.

In September, Reuters reported that Israel was arming and paying Syrian Druze in the wake of recent massacres against the Druze there.

Sources cited by the Post, however, said arms were being discreetly airdropped to the Syrian Druze as early as December 17, 2024 — just nine days after Assad was ousted. Alongside humanitarian aid, that delivery included 500 rifles, ammunition and body armor to a Druze militia called the Military Council, the Post said, citing two former Israeli officials involved in the operation.

Later, amid the sectarian clashes in Sweida, Israel mostly sent the Druze weapons taken from slain Hamas and Hezbollah operatives, the Post said. The paper also cited a Druze militia leader who recounted receiving sniper rifles, night vision equipment and machine gun rounds from Israel.

The Council was born over the course of the past year, as Assad’s allies faltered amid conflict with Israel, and as Israeli Druze leaders sought a Syrian counterpart to lead the community in Syria, in case the regime fell, the Post said. They settled on Tareq Shoufi, a former colonel in Assad’s military.

A former Israeli official cited by the Post recalled picking “20 men with military experience, dishing out ranks and tasks, and beginning to work on what was called the ‘Military Council,’” which was led by Shoufi and located in Sweida.

To establish a command center and buy equipment, an Israeli Druze security official transferred Shoufi $24,000 via the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish militia that has ties to Israel and that has also clashed with forces loyal to Sharaa, including a deadly battle in Aleppo on Monday that killed three people, the Post reported.

SDF followed the initial transfer with its own transfusion of half a million dollars to Shoufi, the Post said. SDF also started training Syrian Durze fighters, including women, in Kurdish areas of northern Syria, and continues to do so. During the Sweida sectarian clashes earlier this year, SDF also sent some Druze leaders anti-tank missiles and battlefield imagery captured by Israeli satellites, according to two Druze militia chiefs cited by the Post.

Initially, Shoufi’s Council was supported by Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, who has called for the establishment of an Israeli-backed Druze state, the Post said, citing another founding member of the Council.

But in August, Hijri maneuvered to become the sole military leader of the Syrian Druze, and established — with his son Suleiman — a new militia called the “National Guard,” to which Israel began sending weapons instead of the Military Council, the Post says, citing Syrian Druze commanders and former Israeli officials who were involved.

The switch from the Council to the Guard exacerbated the Syrian Druze infighting, with Shoufi forced into hiding for fear of arrest by Hijri’s loyalists.

The power struggles deflated some Israeli officials’ hopes to craft a proxy force out of the Syrian Druze, according to the Post.

“The Israelis know they have no one to work with on the other side — certainly not in any long-term capacity,” a former Israeli official told the newspaper.