Israel strikes near Syrian presidential palace in 'message' to Sharaa

Damascus, Syria - Israel bombed an area near the presidential palace in Damascus early on Friday in its clearest signal yet of hostility toward the Islamist-led Syrian authorities and a preparedness to ramp up military action in the name of Syria's Druze minority.

Israel has escalated military operations in Syria since rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad in December, with bombings across the country and ground forces entering its southwest, while calling for Syria to remain decentralized and isolated.

It has framed its stance around its suspicion toward interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once headed a branch of al Qaeda, and the desire to protect the Druze, a minority sect that is an offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Early on Friday, Israel's military said it struck an area "adjacent" to Sharaa's palace in Damascus, without further details on the target. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities, and no immediate reports of casualties.

A Syrian official told Reuters the target was about 100 meters (330 feet) east of the palace's perimeter.

The strike was "a clear message to the Syrian regime: We will not allow (Syrian) forces to deploy south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.

It followed days of clashes in Syria between Sunni Muslim and Druze gunmen triggered by a voice recording purportedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed. The clashes left more than two dozen people dead in towns around Damascus and prompted an initial Israeli "warning strike" on a town on the capital's outskirts that killed one member of Syria's security forces.

On Thursday, the clashes began spreading further south to the province of Sweida, which is predominantly Druze.

Talks to calm atmosphere

Late on Thursday, Druze community leaders and Syrian government officials met in Sweida in a bid to defuse tensions. Their concluding statement said residents of Sweida would protect their province as a part of Syria's internal security forces, and rejected "division, separation or secession".

This week's fighting posed the latest challenge for Sharaa, who has repeatedly vowed to unite all of Syria's armed forces under one structure and govern the country, fractured by 14 years of civil war until Assad's overthrow, in an inclusive way.

But incidents of sectarian violence, notably the killing of hundreds of pro-Assad Alawites in March, have hardened fears among minority groups about the now-dominant Islamists and sparked condemnation from global powers.

Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the US State Department, said the "recent violence and inflammatory rhetoric targeting members of the Druze community in Syria is reprehensible and unacceptable.

"We call for a representative future government that protects and integrates all of Syria's communities, including ethnic and religious minorities," Bruce said in a statement.

The United States has said it does not recognize any entity as the legitimate government of Syria and would only normalize ties depending on the actions of the "interim authorities."

An inclusive Syrian government is among the conditions set by President Donald Trump's administration in exchange for partial relief from tough US sanctions. Syria delivered a written response to the U.S. demands last month.

Israel has a small Druze community and there are also some 24,000 Druze living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel annexed the territory in 1981, a move that has not been recognized by most countries or the United Nations.

(Reporting by Khalil Ashawi, Maya Gebeily and Hatem Maher; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Lincoln Feast and Mark Heinrich)