9 more Druze-Israelis arrested in ambulance attacks

Nine more Druze-Israelis were arrested in connection with attacks on two ambulances carrying wounded Syrians to Israeli hospitals.

The arrests reported on Tuesday by the Hebrew-language news website Walla bring the total number of arrests in the attacks last month to 21. One Syrian died in the attacks.

Police imposed a gag order on the investigation into the incidents.

A mob of Druze-Israeli protesters near the village of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights on June 22 night dragged two wounded Syrian fighters from an ambulance, beating one to death and seriously injuring the second.

Earlier the same day a group of protesters attacked an ambulance driving by the Druze village of Hurfish, where residents blocked the path of the ambulance and threw stones at it.

The Druze attackers believed the injured men were members of Syrian rebel groups, which have been targeting Druze-Syrians living near the border with Israel as part of the country’s four-year civil war.

Israel treats wounded from the civil war in the field and at local hospitals regardless of what side they are fighting for. More than 1,600 wounded Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals during the civil war, according to the Israel Defense Forces.