Defense Minister Katz responds that Ambassador Tom Barrack doesn't know the facts, after he complained that strikes to protect Druze complicated efforts for regional stability

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While strategic considerations were still in play, the heart of the decision lay in defending the extended family of Israel’s own Druze—a gesture shaped as much by kinship as by security. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria over the past decade,

A U.S. envoy has reaffirmed Washington's support for Syria's new government, stating there is "no Plan B" for uniting the country.

Barrack suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.

Violence between government forces and armed factions of a religious minority in southern Syria has deepened divisions in a country still recuperating from a civil war.

Druze fighters pushed out rival armed factions from Syria's southern city of Sweida on Saturday, a monitor said, after the government ordered a ceasefire following a US-brokered deal to avert