According to Israel, the July 27 airstrike occurred at a football field in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which has a large Druze community, and killed at least 12 children.
Israel accused Hezbollah of being behind the attack and vowed to retaliate. However, the powerful Lebanese militant group denied being behind the attack.
Below is information about the Golan Heights, as well as the Druze religious and ethnic minority community that was the victim of the attack.
Israeli security forces and local residents gather at the site of an airstrike in the Golan Heights on July 27. Photo: AFP
What is the Golan Heights?
The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, before declaring its annexation in 1981. The mountainous territory spanning some 1,300 square kilometers also borders Jordan and Lebanon.
From the rocky Golan Heights, the Syrian capital Damascus can be seen. The Israeli-occupied part of the territory is separated from Syria by a UN-backed buffer zone.
The Golan Heights is considered occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions, and Syria continues to demand its return.
The area has often been a flashpoint, most recently in 2019 when former President Donald Trump announced the US would recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights - a move that reversed years of policy and increased tensions with Syria.
Israel sees the Golan Heights as key to its national security interests and says it needs control of the area to counter threats from Syria and militant groups in the region.
The July 27 airstrike was not the first in the Golan Heights since Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza began following the October 7 attack.
In early July, a Hezbollah rocket attack killed two people in the area, prompting the head of Israel's Golan Regional Council to call for "forceful" retaliation against the Lebanese group. Hezbollah had previously said it had fired dozens of Katyusha rockets into the Golan Heights "in response" to an alleged Israeli strike in Syria on a key Hezbollah member.
Who are the Druze?
The Druze are an Arab sect of about 1 million people, living mainly in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Originating in Egypt in the 11th century, the group is an offshoot of Islam that does not allow conversion - accepting or rejecting the religion - and intermarriage.
More than 20,000 Druze live in the Golan Heights. Most identify themselves as Syrian and rejected offers of Israeli citizenship when Israel occupied the area in 1967.
The Majdal Shams regional council said none of the Druze killed in the July 27 soccer stadium attack had Israeli nationality.
The Druze in the Golan Heights share the territory with about 25,000 Israeli Jews, spread across more than 30 settlements. Last year, the UN Human Rights Council raised alarm over Israel's plans to double the settler population in the Golan Heights by 2027.
People at the site of an airstrike in the Golan Heights on July 27. Photo: AFP
According to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Syrian Druze in the Golan suffer from discriminatory policies, especially those related to land and water allocation.
“Over the years, Israeli settlement expansion and its activities have reduced Syrian farmers’ access to water due to discriminatory policies regarding prices and fees,” the UN commission said.
The Druze in the Golan Heights have long opposed Israeli laws that they see as attempts to "Israelize". In 2018, thousands of Druze-led protesters opposed the Basic Law on the Jewish Nation-State passed by the Israeli parliament, fearing it would increase discrimination.
Druze leaders at the time said the controversial law made them feel like second-class citizens because it made no mention of equality or minority rights.
Recent data reported by the Israeli press shows that the number of Druze from the Golan applying for Israeli citizenship is increasing, but the number doing so remains extremely small: 75 in 2017 to 239 in 2021.
Outside the Golan, however, there are about 130,000 Israeli Druze living in Carmel and Galilee in northern Israel.
Ngoc Anh (according to CNN)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/cao-nguyen-golan-la-gi-va-nguoi-druze-la-ai-post305387.html
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