JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday it would let Syrian Druze workers enter the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory, without saying when the government would start issuing permits.
The Golan Heights is home to 24,000 Druze, an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam and also live in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
Israel captured most of the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981. The U.S. views it as Israeli territory, but most countries classify it as occupied.
Many Syrian Druze were loyal to deposed President Bashar al-Assad, and a large number of families have relatives living in the Golan Heights.
The Israeli government has said Syria’s new leadership is a threat to Israel and has pledged to help protect minorities in Syria, including the Druze.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles and military infrastructure, saying such operations seek to prevent them from being used by rebel groups that drove Assad from power, some of which grew from movements linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
(Reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by Helen Popper; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Helen Popper)
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