Two Israeli Druze charged with murder for attacking wounded Syrians

Two Israeli Druze were indicted in a northern Israeli district court on Monday, charged with murder for their role in an attack on an Israeli military ambulance carrying two wounded Syrian rebels to a hospital in June, resulting in the death of one of them.

The indictments were against a 48 year-old woman Bashira Mahmoud and a 21 year-old man, Amal Abu Salah, both residing in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in Israel's northern Golan Heights along the Syrian border, at the Nazareth District Court on Monday.

The two suspects' remand was extended until the start of their trial.

On June 22, dozens of Israeli Druze attacked the Israeli military ambulance that carried two injured Syrian rebels from the border to the Rambam hospital in Haifa, after sustaining minor gunshot injuries in their legs during the fighting in Syria amid the country's four-year civil war.

The incident was described by witnesses at a lynch, with mobsters beating the injured with sticks and stones. One of the injured Syrians died and the other sustained serious injuries. Two soldiers were also lightly injured while trying to disperse the mob.

The mob believed that the suspects were members of the al-Nusra front, a Syrian jihadists group that killed over 20 Druze in Syria few weeks before the attack.

The state prosecution said in court on Monday that the video footage reveals that the murder of the Syrian man was done "without mercy" and that its case is based, other than the video footage, on testimonies of Israeli soldiers and paramedics who were at the scene and have identified the defendants as taking an active role in the attack.

Tensions rose among Druze in Israel, mainly residing in the northern Golan Heights, after their brethren in Syria were killed by the al-Nusra front.

They started to protest, calling upon Israel to save their fellows from a possible massacre, and charging against the medical care they claimed Israel was providing al-Nusra front warriors battling Assad's regime.

The Druze are a small Arab sect in the Middle East, based primarily in Lebanon, Syria and Israel, which broke off from Islam in the 11th century.

There are nearly 140,000 Druze living in Israel, who maintain family and cultural ties with their fellows in Syria and Lebanon. Endit