Druse pilgrims cross to Syria from Golan Heights

About 400 Druse clergymen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights crossed into Syria on Thursday for an annual pilgrimage.

The clerics, in traditional uniforms of white turbans, black robes and bushy mustaches, walked across a 300-meter buffer zone between Israeli and Syrian checkpoints at the Quneitra border crossing.

For the first time, about a dozen women joined them, to visit relatives in Syria.

But the group was smaller than planned, because Israel turned down applications from other pilgrims, said Medhat Saleh, head of Golan affairs in the Syrian Cabinet. He did not specify how many other Druse were denied entry, or for what reason.

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