Tel Aviv: Israel has acknowledged carrying out an attack close to Damascus’ presidential palace. The assault was a clear message to the Syrian government, warning against the buildup of soldiers in southern Damascus and threats to the Druze population, according to a joint statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“The Syrian government is receiving a clear message from this. According to the Times of Israel, they said in the statement, “We will not permit the deployment of troops south of Damascus or any danger to the Druze community.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also confirmed the hit near Ahmed Hussein al-Shara’s palace.

“A short time ago, warplanes attacked the area near Ahmed Hussein al-Shara’s palace in Damascus,” the IDF claimed in a post on X on Friday.

The US, meanwhile, denounced the violence against Syria’s Druze minority as “reprehensible and unacceptable.”

“The recent violence and inflammatory rhetoric targeting members of the Druze community in Syria is reprehensible and unacceptable,” said Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson for the US State Department. All Syrians must be safe, the war must end, and those responsible for violence and civilian casualties must be held accountable by the interim government.

“Sectarianism is only going to plunge Syria and the region into chaos and more violence,” she said. We’ve noticed that Syrians may use dialogue to settle their differences amicably. In the future, we want a representative government that safeguards and unites all Syrian groups, including racial and religious minorities.

Al Jazeera reports that an audiotape of somebody disparaging Islam’s Prophet Muhammad went viral on social media, sparking the fights on Monday night around midnight. A Druze scholar was identified as the source of the audio. Many Sunni Muslims were incensed when scholar Marwan Kiwan claimed in a social media video that he was not the source of the audio.

The Druze community’s leader, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, denounced the violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya, close to Damascus, earlier this week, calling it a “genocidal campaign” against the Syrian community.

At least 101 persons were killed in combat between security forces, allied fighters, and local Druze organizations, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitor located in the United Kingdom.

According to the SOHR, the death toll consisted of 10 civilians, including Husam Warwar, the former mayor of Sahnaya; 21 Druze combatants; and 30 government supporters, according to Al Jazeera.