Majdal Shams rocket attack highlights vulnerability of Golan Heights Druze community

Gaza war casts bloody shadow on sect facing pressure in Lebanon and engaged in anti-Assad uprising in Syria

Druze clergymen attend the funeral of some of the 12 civilians killed in the rocket strike on the Golan Heights, on July 28, 2024. AP

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The killing of 12 Druze civilians in a rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights town has brought back to the surface the threats endured by the sect as a transnational minority that has struggled to assert itself amid mounting political uncertainty since the Gaza war.

The Druze number less than one million people in the region but they inhabit strategic mountain areas at the crossroads of big power competition in the Middle East.

Survival of the sect, especially since the 2000s, has contrasted with other minorities undermined by wars, religious intolerance and deteriorating economic conditions.

The strike on Saturday, which Israel has blamed on Lebanon's Hezbollah, was among the deadliest on areas controlled by Israel since the October 7 attack that sparked the Gaza war.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility, but Israeli officials have called for strong retaliation in Lebanon. Syria accused Israel of being behind the incident.

Senior Syrian Druze cleric Hikmat Al Hijri hinted that the attack may have been an accident, but did not absolve the assailant of responsibility.

"Our sons are not target practice," he said in a statement.

"No one can achieve their aim through the blood of our sons said," said the cleric, the most senior of a triumvirate that constitutes the Druze leadership in Syria.

He did not mention Hezbollah by name but said that "the side" who committed "the crime" is "obvious" and should be persecuted according to international law.

Hezbollah has attacked Israeli targets in the Golan Heights as part of a wider, Iranian-led retaliation against Israel for its invasion of Gaza. The invasion occurred after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.

Saturday's rocket attack struck a football pitch in the mostly Druze village of Majdal Shams, near a four-decade armistice line in the Golan Heights. Israel captured the territory from Syria in 1967 and annexed it in 1981, in a move that was not recognised by major world powers.

Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif told mourners at the funeral of some of the children killed in the latest attack that the incident was a "heinous despicable massacre".

The Druze of Lebanon, Israel and Syria are united in grief, he said.

The attack took place as a mass protest movement in Druze majority areas in southern Syria, demanding the removal of President Bashar Al Assad, is about to enter its 12th month.

Both Mr Tarif and Mr Hijri are believed to have used their international ties – particularly with Mr Assad's main ally Russia – in shielding the protest movement by the Druze in Syria's Suweida from a violent government crackdown.

Veteran Syrian political commentator Ayman Abdel Nour said that Russia is preventing the security forces from being sent to crush the protest movement in Suweida, as was the case during the government crackdown on the 2011 revolt against the president.

He said that Saturday's bloodshed "could have been an accident", or a "revenge attack" by Hezbollah and Damascus against Syria's Druze, aimed at sending them a message saying "no one can protect you".

Mr Abdel Nour argued that while Hezbollah may have not intended to attack the Majdal Shams football field, the group's rockets had hit close to the town before, which he says indicates little regard for Druze civilians.

In Lebanon, Walid Joumblatt, the country’s most prominent Druze political figure, has often challenged Hezbollah's dominance over the country. In the past, Mr Joumblatt has been instrumental in preventing Hezbollah from installing one of its proteges in the vacant position of Lebanon's president.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt stands at his house in Beirut, on February 7, 2017. AFP

Mr Joumblatt is among several anti-Hezbollah figures who have repeatedly called on the Druze of Israel not to serve in the Israeli military, to avoid accusations of complicity in the war in Gaza.

The Druze of Majdal Shams and the rest of the Golan Heights have generally avoided enlisting into the army, unlike members of the sect who live in Israel who have integrated into Israeli society.

The Druze sect is an offshoot of Islam. Its leaders have sought to minimise differences with Muslims as a way to integrate in the societies of Arab countries since they gained independence from colonial rule.

About 25,000 Druze live in the occupied Golan Heights, and another 140,000 in Israel. Most of the Druze living in the Golan Heights have refrained from adopting Israeli citizenship, although they have access to Israeli public services and the labour market. This is seen as having helped them keep ties with Syrian Druze under the rule of Damascus and avoid stigma as being sympathetic to Israel.