Public radio said around 200 Druze from Majdal Shams pelted ambulance with stones and dragged wounded Syrians from vehicle

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Dozens of Druze residents of the occupied Golan Heights attacked a military ambulance carrying two wounded Syrians on Monday night, beating one of the Syrians to death on suspicion that they were Islamic militants.

“A crowd attacked an ambulance with stones near Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights”, a police statement said, adding that one of the injured died after the attack.

It said that the second Syrian was in a serious condition, and that two soldiers who were also inside the vehicle had been slightly wounded.

The incident displays the spiralling anger inside Israel’s Druze community, which has been pushing for the Israeli government to do more to help Druze Syrians caught up in that country’s civil war.

There is growing concern for the fate of Syria’s Druze minority, traditional allies of President Bashar al-Assad, who are surrounded by rebels.

Israelis watch intently as Syrian rebels approach Golan Heights border Read more

Public radio earlier said that around 200 Druze from Majdal Shams had pelted the ambulance with stones, forcing it to stop, and dragged the wounded Syrians from the vehicle.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called the incident “very serious” and said those behind the attack would be held to account.

“We will not let anyone take the law into their hands and prevent the army from carrying out its mission,” he said in a statement, appealing for leaders in the Druze community to maintain calm.

Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon pledged to track down the rioters. “We won’t be able to ignore it, and law enforcement authorities will deal with it heavy-handedly,” he said in a statement.

Tensions have flared in Druze areas of northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after rebels surrounded a government-held Druze village on the Syrian side last week.

The Druze, a religious sect that began as an offshoot of Shia Islam, are among Israel’s most loyal citizens and serve in its military. But they are also increasingly worried about the plight of their brethren in Syria. Earlier this month at least 20 Druze were killed in an unprecedented shootout with the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front in north-west Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Monday’s attack came hours after another group of Druze also blocked and threw stones at an army vehicle they believed was transferring wounded Syrian rebels for treatment, police said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the first incident happened in the northern Israeli town of Horfish and that the Druze tried to check the identities of those inside the ambulance.

The Druze threw stones at the vehicle as it tried to drive off, she said, adding that one Druze was moderately injured in the incident.

Israel shares a ceasefire line with Syria on the Golan Heights, and has let hundreds of wounded Syrians into the country for medical treatment.

Officials say there are 110,000 Druze in northern Israel, and another 20,000 in the Israeli-held Golan.

Israel seized 1,200sq km (460sq miles) of the Golan Heights in the six-day war of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.