Horror at deaths of 12 children unites Druze across borders

By Kareem Chehayeb and Melanie Lidman The Associated Press

5 months ago

FILE - Mourners from the Druze minority surround the bodies of some of the 12 children and teen ... — FILE – Mourners from the Druze minority surround the bodies of some of the 12 children and teens killed in a rocket strike at a soccer field, during their funeral, in the village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)

Alma’s father, Ayman Fakhr al-Din, shows one her favourite soccer jerseys, as he stands in his daughter’s room at the town of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

FARDIS, Lebanon — Alma Ayman Fakhr al-Din, a lively 11-year-old who loved basketball and learning languages, was playing on a soccer field a week ago in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Golan Heights, when the rocket hit.

Running to the site, her father Ayman pleaded with emergency workers for information about his daughter. “Suddenly I went to the corner, I saw such a tiny girl in a bag,” he said. He recognized her shoes, her hand. “I understood that that’s it, nothing is left, she’s gone.” She was among 12 children and teens killed.

The shocking bloodshed unified the Druze across the region in grief — and laid bare the complex identity of the small, insular religious minority, whose members are spread across Israel, the Golan Heights, Lebanon and Syria.

The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Outsiders are not allowed to convert, and most religious practices are shrouded in secrecy. There are just one million Druze — more than half of them in Syria, around 250,000 in Lebanon, 115,000 in Israel and 25,000 in the Golan Heights.

In Israel, Druze are highly regarded for their loyalty to the state and their military service, with many entering elite combat units, including fighting in Gaza.

After the attack, a string of Israeli politicians rushed to Majdal Shams to show solidarity.

“These children are our children, they are the children of all of us,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, visiting the soccer field.

Around 80 percent of the male Druze population enlists in the military, higher than the around 70 percent of Israeli Jews, according to official statistics. Ten Druze soldiers have been killed in the war in the Gaza Strip.

Sheikh Moafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze in Israel, said he wasn’t surprised by the wave of national compassion. “During the time of mourning, everyone is talking about support,” he said.