SOS: Syrian Druze call on Israel to save them
Druze sheikh tells Israel Today: “Thanks to blessed Israel, and to the hero Netanyahu, for rescuing us before. But they still want to exterminate us.”
Israel Today
Feb 26, 2026
Sheikh Marwan al-Kiwan
A Druze leader from southern Syria is urging Israel to expand its protection of minority communities across the border, warning that Druze and Christians remain at risk amid ongoing instability and sectarian violence.
In an interview with Israel Today (see full video below), Sheikh Marwan al-Kiwan credited Israel’s recent military posture with preventing what he described as a wider massacre and called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to receive international recognition.
“Without Israel and the bold actions of the Netanyahu government, Syria’s Druze and Christian populations would not have survived,” al-Kiwan said. He argued Netanyahu should be awarded “the Nobel Peace Prize for his rescue of the Druze and Christian people” in southern Syria.
His comments come after a series of Israeli strikes in Syria in mid-2025 and renewed fighting in the south. In June 2025, Israel struck targets near Damascus and in southern provinces after projectiles crossed from Syria into Israel.
By July 2025, clashes in the Druze province of Sweida escalated sharply. Israeli strikes and statements that Israel would not allow Syrian forces to move into southern Syria, while vowing to protect the Druze community—language reflecting Israel’s broader insistence on a demilitarized southern Syrian belt.
Against that backdrop, al-Kiwan rejected reconciliation with Syria’s new rulers and framed the conflict as existential. “Impossible to reconcile with this new ISIS regime,” he said, adding that the threat is not limited to one faction. “Our conflict is not only with them, but with all Sunni Arabs,” he continued, describing what he called a long-running campaign to eliminate minorities, including hostility toward “the beloved Jewish people.”
Al-Kiwan called for political separation from Damascus and direct Israeli backing. “We call on Israel and on the national hero, Benjamin Netanyahu, to grant us independence and protection,” he said. “We are a nation and a people just like the Jewish people… We reject any notion of remaining under ‘Syria.’ And we need this to happen now.”
He said massacres were continuing in several areas and warned that regional actors aligned with the Trump administration were enabling forces targeting minorities. “They want a Middle East without minorities,” he said. “Save us. If the situation remains unchanged… [we] will be fully exterminated.”
Asked why fewer Syrian Christians speak publicly, al-Kiwan replied: “The Christians have suffered no less than us… When they suffer, we suffer.”
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