Jerusalem: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has expressed his concern to the United States over the fate of the Druze minority in Syria, saying about 500,000 of them were under threat from Islamist militants in an area near the Israeli border.

Israel's Druze minority, some of whom have reached the senior echelons of Israel's military, have been calling for help on behalf of their brethren in Syria, both at home and abroad.

A boy from the Druze community holds a Syrian flag with the image of President Bashar al-Assad during a 2013 rally in the Druze village of Buqata on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Credit:Reuters

"What is going on just now is intimidation and threat to the very existence of half a million Druze on the Mount of Druze which is very close to the Israeli border," Mr Rivlin said after a meeting on Wednesday with General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.