Defense Minister Israel Katz said Druze from across the separation line would be allowed to enter the Golan Heights for work.

JULIS, Israel (Reuters) - The head of the Druze community in Israel on Thursday hailed plans for the first visit by a Druze religious delegation from Syria in five decades, despite escalating cross-border tensions underscored by an Israeli airstrike on Damascus.

Announcement comes as Israeli politicians lambast Syrian transitional government for reported mass killings, urge European states to 'wake up' and stop granting regime legitimacy

Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Druze communities in its neighbour Syria over the past few weeks, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, in a further sign of backing for the minority group.

Israel said on Monday that it was willing to defend Syria's Druze community following days of violence in Syria that a war monitor said led to mass

The Golan Heights is home to 24,000 Druze, an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam and also live in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Members of the small religious sect find themselves caught between two forces that many of them distrust: the new, Islamist-led government in Damascus and Syria’s hostile neighbor, Israel, which has used the plight of the Druze as a pretext to intervene in the country.

A group of around 100 senior figures from Syria's Druze are expected to visit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Friday, members of the community said, in a further sign of Israel's support for the minority group.