Israeli Druze attack military vehicle carrying Syrian refugees, killing one

Dozens of Israeli Druze attacked an Israeli military ambulance on Monday night, in the second such assault in 24 hours, killing one of the two Syrian patients onboard and seriously wounding the other, police said.

A police spokesperson confirmed that one Syrian died and the other was seriously injured. Two soldiers in the car were also slightly injured, according to the Ynet news website.

"A military vehicle traveling from Majdal Shams to Kiryat Shmona was stopped by dozens of people, residents of the Golan villages, who attacked the vehicle," police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld said, adding that large forces of police and the military had arrived at the scene.

Israeli media outlets described the attack as a lynching that took place near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights near the Syrian border. Photos depicting the ransacked ambulance have been circulated.

The two Syrian refugees were both said to be seriously injured in the Syrian civil war when they were taken in by Israeli soldiers to receive treatment at the Rambam hospital in Haifa.

A military official told the Ma'ariv news website that the dramatic incident on Monday night "will change the situation" in the area.

A police official told the Ynet news website that the police "views this matter severely" and will "act to bring those involved to justice."

Overnight Sunday, an Israel Defense Forces ambulance carrying wounded Syrians was attacked by a group of Druze from the village of Hurfesh in the upper Galilee. The attackers claimed that they wanted to check it did not carry jihadi rebels, the Times of Israel website reported. The patients were not harmed.

An uproar among Druze in Israel was stirred by reports in recent weeks of Syrian Druze being killed by the al-Nusra front, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, with one attack resulting in the deaths of 20 Druze.

They staged protests calling on Israel to prevent a massacre of their brethren and to deny medical help to Nusra fighters.

Last week, Israel established a closed military zone for several hours in northern Golan Heights near the Syrian border in order to prevent protests by Druze in those areas.

The Druze are a small Arab sect in the Middle East, primarily in Lebanon, Syria and Israel, which broke off from Islam in the 11th century. Nearly 140,000 Druze are living in Israel, maintaining family and cultural ties with fellows in Syria and Lebanon.

During the past few years of the Syrian civil war, Israel announced it would not interfere with the fighting and only assist by handing medical care to wounded Syrians who reach the border with Israel.

Israeli officials, in response to the upset among the Druze, said they will not stand by if a massacre is committed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the "serious" incident, vowing to bring the offenders to justice.

On Tuesday, the Israeli chief of general staff said that the Israeli military would act in the vicinity of the Syrian border if necessary, in order to prevent the massacre of Syrian refugees, apparently referring to Druze refugees.

Earlier on Sunday, the Hebrew Walla news website reported that Israel is conducting initial contacts with some countries, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross in order to create a "safe zone" along the border for Druze refugees from Syria. Endit