Israel ramped up airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday following reports that members of the Druze religious minority were being massacred by militant Islamists, shining a spotlight on a unique community that has lived in the region for more than a thousand years and remains tightly connected despite being scattered across international borders. 

Around 150,000 Druze live in Israel’s north and on the Golan Heights, but there are also large communities in Syria and Lebanon – neighboring countries that have technically been at war with Israel for decades – and a smaller group in Jordan. 

An esoteric, monotheistic religion that incorporates elements of other Abrahamic religions, as well as several other philosophies, the Druze, an Arabic-speaking population, view themselves as one people despite the hostile borders that divide them. 

Walid Jumblatt, the Druze political leader in Lebanon, center background, stands with clerics shortly after a meeting of the community’s religious leadership in Beirut, Lebanon, June 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

“Israel’s Druze community is putting pressure on the government, so for domestic reasons Israel has to deal with this,” he said, adding that the current Israeli government “believes in using force to appease its base and show that it is strong and using power, or whatever is needed.” 

This is not the first time, Israel’s Druze have rushed to protect their community in Syria. In 2015, when Druze there came under threat from ISIS and from the local al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, Druze in Israel worked to raise funds and arms for their brethren across the border. 

In April, months after the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, hundreds of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the border taking a rare trip to Israel to celebrate the community’s holiday of Ziyara at the Nabi Shuaib holy site, just west of the Sea of Galilee.