Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has dismissed Israel’s criticism of mass killings blamed on his regime as “nonsense,” Reuters reported on Monday.
“They are the last ones who can talk,” Al-Sharaa, the country’s de facto leader, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, charged in a wide-ranging interview with the news agency.
According to Reuters, Al-Sharaa accused the Jewish state of killing “tens of thousands of people” during its wars against Iranian-backed terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon over the past 18 months.
The massacres taking place in Syria have reignited concerns over the Sunni Islamist government that overthrew Bashar Assad in December. More than a thousand people have been killed in the coastal provinces of Tartus and Latakia, with some 700 civilians executed at close range.
Al-Sharaa’s government has denied responsibility for the killings, calling the accusations “undocumented.” Local human rights groups have also reported Assad loyalists killing members of Al-Sharaa’s security forces.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 745 civilians, 125 government security force members and 148 militants from armed groups affiliated with the Assad regime had been killed.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated earlier on Monday that “Al-Julani took off his jalabiya, put on a suit, and presented a moderate facade.
“Now, he has removed the mask, revealing his true face: a jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaeda school, committing atrocities against the Alawite civilian population,” Katz wrote in a post on social media.
Al-Sharaa was a leading figure in Al-Qaeda before founding Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the overthrow of the Assad regime last year.
Katz said Israel would “ensure that southern Syria remains demilitarized and free of threats, and we will protect the local Druze population,” warning that “anyone who harms them will face our response.”
Also on Monday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar criticized European leaders for their willingness to engage with Al-Sharaa.
“Europeans flocked to Damascus in recent months to shake his hand, but he and his men were jihadists and have remained so, even if they now wear suits,” Sa’ar stated, urging the international community to condemn what he described as the “barbaric murder of civilians.”
