JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

A total of 20 Druze from Syria’s southern Suwayda province will undergo firefighting training in Israel, the first of its kind, Israeli media reported Thursday.

The training program will place the Syrian participants - all of them Druze - in a three-week intensive course using Israel’s latest firefighting simulation systems, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily said.

The course will train them to respond to complex scenarios, including vehicle fires, residential blazes, and commercial-center fires, and will teach professional rescue techniques in hazardous environments, the paper said.

After completing the program, the Druze trainees will return home with professional equipment and a new fire truck to establish a firefighting center in the Druze area across the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the paper reported.

The initiative is led by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in coordination with the Israeli National Security Council.

There has been no comment from Syrian authorities on the report.

Damascus says it guarantees equal rights for all components of Syrian society, including the Druze, and accuses Israel of using claims of support for the Druze community as a pretext to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs.

Israel has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967 and expanded its control after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government in late 2024.

Alongside Syrian territory, Israel also occupies parts of Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and has refused to withdraw to the pre-June 1967 borders or allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.