TEL AVIV, July 17. /TASS/. A ceasefire in southern Syria was achieved by force, Syrian troops withdrew to Damascus as a result of intensive Israeli actions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, noting that the Jewish state pursues a clear policy, which consists in demilitarizing the territory south of Damascus.
"As a result of [Israel's] intensive actions, a ceasefire was established, and the Syrian troops withdrew to Damascus. This is a ceasefire achieved by force. We achieve peace through strength, tranquility through strength, security through strength - on seven fronts," Netanyahu said in a video message distributed by his office.
"We have developed a clear policy, which consists of demilitarizing the territory south of Damascus. This is one line from the Golan Heights to the Druze Mountains area. The second line is the protection of the Druze in the area of the Druze Mountains."
Netanyahu said that after the events of July 13, he "ordered the Israel Defense Forces to act decisively" to protect the Druze. "The Air Force attacked both gangs of assassins and armored vehicles. I also added the complex of buildings of the Syrian General Staff in Damascus as the target of the attack," he added.
The situation in southern Syria deteriorated on July 13, when clashes broke out in the province of Al-Suwayda between Arab tribal militias and Druze mountain self-defense units. On July 15, the Syrian army entered the eponymous provincial administrative center and began to clean it up to stabilize the situation. Shortly after that, Israel began attacking military convoys of the Syrian army, arguing that it wanted to protect the Druze population of the province. On July 16, the Israeli Air Force attacked several strategic targets in Damascus and its surroundings, in particular the complex of buildings of the General Staff of the Syrian army, the Presidential Palace in the Abu Rumman quarter and the Mezza military airfield in the west of the Syrian capital. According to Reuters news agency, five members of the security forces were killed in the strikes on the Syrian General Staff.
The Druze are an isolated Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious group living in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. There are 700,000 Druze in Syria, the third largest religious and ethnic minority after the Kurds and Alawites.