DAMASCUS, May 2, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a "genocidal campaign" against his community after two days of sectarian clashes left 102 people dead.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned his country would respond "with significant force" if Syria's new authorities fail to protect the Druze minority, whose representatives rejected any attempt to force them out.

The violence poses a serious challenge to the Islamist authorities who ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria's Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly from Assad's Alawite community, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hijri denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an "unjustifiable genocidal campaign" against the Druze.

He called in a statement for immediate intervention by "international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes".

Israel has ramped up support of Syria's Druze, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urging the international community to "fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria -- especially the Druze -- from the regime and its gangs of terror".

At a meeting of Druze leaders, elders and armed groups in the city of Sweida, the community agreed it was "an inseparable part of the unified Syrian homeland", a spokesperson said.

"We reject partition, separation, or disengagement," the spokesperson added.

- 'Outlaw groups' blamed -
The Syrian Observatory said the fighting had involved security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups.

The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the 102 death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya's former mayor, Husam Warwar.

In the southern Druze heartland province of Sweida, it said 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 in an "ambush" on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.

The monitor told AFP the fighters were killed "by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defence and gunmen associated with them".

The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.

AFP was unable to confirm the recording's authenticity.

Truces were reached in Jaramana on Tuesday and in Sahnaya on Wednesday.

The government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, and accused "outlaw groups" of instigating the clashes.

However, Hijri said he no longer trusts "an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres".

"The government (should) protect its people," he said.

The Druze gathering on Thursday urged the government to engage "the judicial police in Sweida, drawing from the province's own residents" on the issue.

Syria's new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists.

On Wednesday, a foreign ministry statement vowed to "protect all components" of Syrian society, including the Druze.

- Israeli strikes -
Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Thursday reiterated Syria's rejection of demands for international intervention, posting on X that "national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival".

"Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division," he added.

Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists and carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday.

Israel has attacked hundreds of military sites in Syria since Assad's overthrow and said its military would hit government targets "should the violence against Druze communities continue".

It has also sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights and voiced support for Syria's Druze.

Israel's military said Thursday two wounded Syrian Druze had been evacuated to northern Israel for treatment.

In a statement Thursday, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the violence and rhetoric against the Druze community in Syria was "reprehensible and unacceptable", and called on the interim authorities to hold perpetrators accountable.