Syrian Druse Pilgrims Pay Rare Visit to Israel

A delegation of Syrian Druse made a rare visit to Israel over the weekend for a pilgrimage to a shrine as Israel seeks to extend its influence inside Syria after the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Both Israel and Syria have sizable minorities who belong to the Druse sect — an Arabic-speaking religious minority scattered across the Levant region. But with Israel and Syria formally at war for decades, Syrian Druse were generally unable to enter Israel to visit sites holy to their faith.

Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, a Druse leader in Israel who helped organize the two-day visit, said roughly 100 people arrived on Friday in a convoy from Syrian territory. They also visited the Tomb of the Prophet Shuaib in the northern Galilee region of Israel, a site deeply revered in their faith.

“After being cut off for decades, to see our people arriving in our country — it’s a moment of great joy,” said Mr. Tarif, adding that he knew most of the visitors only from phone conversations, given the great difficulty of traveling between the two countries.

In Israel, many Druse hold Israeli passports, serve in the national military and are viewed as loyal “brothers in arms.” Others in the Golan Heights, territory that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, still hold Syrian identity and have Israeli residency cards, not citizenship.

Since the collapse of Mr. al-Assad’s dictatorship in early December, Israel has launched a barrage of airstrikes on Syria which it says are aimed at preventing hostile forces from massing near its borders. But the moves have prompted fears among Syrians of a protracted Israeli occupation of Syrian territory.