Dozens of clerics and others from Syria’s minority Druze community have crossed into the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights Friday for the first time in decades

The visit comes as Israel says it is supporting the minority in a country now ruled by Islamists. But many Druze have rejected its overtures, and critics accuse Israel of trying to weaken and divide Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

The head of the Druze community in Israel on Thursday hailed plans for the first visit by a Druze religious delegation from Syria in five decades, despite escalating cross-border tensions underscored by an Israeli airstrike on Damascus.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A group of around 100 senior figures from Syria's Druze are expected to visit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Friday, members of the community said, in a further sign of Israel's support for the minority group.

As violence escalates in Syria, Israel has announced its readiness to protect the Druze community, a minority group that has found itself caught in the crossfire of the country’s ongoing turmoil. The move highlights Israel’s longstanding ties with the Druze and underscores its concern for regional stability and humanitarian protection.

Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Druze communities in its neighbour Syria over the past few weeks, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, in a further sign of backing for the minority group. Israel has been urging support for the Druze following the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December and his replacement by the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

BEIRUT (AP) — A prominent Druze leader in Lebanon said Sunday that he will soon visit Syria to meet its interim leader as tensions simmer between members of the minority group, the war-torn country's interim government, and Israel.

Israel’s defense minister says minority Druze in Jaramana a town south of Damascus, were under attack from the new Syrian regime and that he ordered Israeli forces to be poised to help protect them if necessary.

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.

Dozens of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the armistice line on the Golan Heights into Israel on Friday for their community's first pilgrimage to a revered shrine since Israel's creation in 1948. On board three buses escorted by Israeli military vehicles,