
Syrian presidency declares ‘comprehensive' ceasefire in Sweida after deadly clashes
Armed tribes had clashed with Druze fighters on Friday, a day after the army withdrew under Israeli bombardment and diplomatic pressure.
The presidency also said in a statement on Saturday that any breaches of the ceasefire would be a 'clear violation to sovereignty', and urged all parties to commit to it and end hostilities in all areas immediately.
Syria's internal security forces had begun deploying in Sweida 'with the aim of protecting civilians and putting an end to the chaos', the interior ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba said in a statement on Telegram.
A statement on Saturday by one of the three religious leaders of the Syrian Druze community, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, said the ceasefire would guarantee safe exit for community members and the opening of humanitarian corridors for besieged civilians to leave.
The US special envoy, Thomas Barrack, had announced hours earlier that Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire, after Israel sided with the Druze factions and joined the conflict, including by bombing a government building in Damascus.
The UN had also called for an end to the fighting and demanded an independent investigation of the violence, which has killed at least 718 people from both sides since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The SOHR reported on Friday that the humanitarian situation in Sweida had 'dramatically deteriorated' owing to an acute shortage of food and medical supplies. All hospitals were out of service because of the conflict and looting was widespread in the city.
'The situation in the hospital is disastrous. The corpses have begun to rot, there's a huge amount of bodies, among them women and children,' a surgeon at Sweida national hospital said over the phone.
The renewed fighting raised questions about the authority of the Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose interim government faces misgivings from the country's minorities after the killing of 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians on the Syrian coast in March.
It was Sharaa who ordered government forces to pull out of Sweida, saying that mediation by the US and others had helped to avert a 'large-scale escalation' with Israel.
A number of sources told Reuters that Sharaa had initially misread how Israel would respond to him deploying troops to the country's south earlier this week, having been encouraged by the Barrack saying Syria should be centrally governed as one country.
When Israel targeted Syrian troops and Damascus on Wednesday, bombarding the Syrian defence ministry headquarters in the centre of the capital and striking near the presidential palace, it took the Syrian government by surprise, the sources said.
Druze people are seen as a loyal minority within Israel and often serve in its military. An Israeli military spokesperson said the strikes were a message to Syria's president regarding the events in Sweida.
But the Syrian government mistakenly believed it had a green light from the US and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the Reuters sources, which included Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats and regional security sources.
The violence erupted last Sunday after the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant by local Bedouin triggered tit-for-tat abductions, the SOHR said.
The government sent in the army, promising to put a halt to the fighting, but witnesses and the SOHR said the troops had sided with the Bedouin and committed many abuses against Druze civilians as well as fighters. The organisation reported that 19 civilians had been killed in an 'horrific massacre' when Syrian defence ministry forces and general security forces entered the town of Sahwat al-Balatah.
A truce was negotiated on Wednesday after the Israeli bombardment, allowing Druze factions and clerics to maintain security in Sweida as government forces pulled out.
Sharaa said in a speech on Thursday that Druze groups would be left to govern security affairs in the southern province in what he described as a choice to avoid war.
'We sought to avoid dragging the country into a new, broader war that could derail it from its path to recovery from the devastating war,' he said. 'We chose the interests of Syrians over chaos and destruction.'
But clashes resumed on Thursday as Syrian state media reported that Druze groups had launched revenge attacks on Bedouin villages. Bedouin tribes had fought alongside government forces against Druze fighters earlier in the week.
On Friday, about 200 tribal fighters clashed with armed Druze men from Sweida using machine guns and shells, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said, while the SOHR reported fighting and 'shelling on neighbourhoods in Sweida city'.
Sweida has been heavily damaged in the fighting and its mainly Druze inhabitants have been deprived of water and electricity. Communication lines have also been cut.
Rayan Maarouf, the editor-in-chief of the local news outlet Suwayda 24, said the humanitarian situation was 'catastrophic'. 'We cannot find milk for children,' he told AFP.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has demanded 'independent, prompt and transparent investigations into all violations' adding that 'those responsible must be held to account'.
The International Committee for the Red Cross said 'health facilities are overwhelmed, medical supplies are dwindling and power cuts are impeding the preservation of human remains in overflowing morgues'.
'The humanitarian situation in Sweida is critical. People are running out of everything,' said Stephan Sakalian, the head of ICRC's delegation in Syria.
Syria's minority groups have been given what many see as only token representation in the interim government since the former president Bashar al-Assad fled the country, according to Bassam Alahmad, the executive director of Syrians for Truth and Justice, a civil society organisation.
'It's a transitional period. We should have a dialogue, and they [the minorities] should feel that they're a real part of the state,' Alahmad said. Instead, the incursion into Sweida sent a message that the new authorities would use military force to 'control every part of Syria'.
'Bashar Assad tried this way' and failed, he said.
Government supporters, however, fear its decision to withdraw could signal to other minorities that it is acceptable to demand their own autonomous regions, which they say would fragment and weaken the country.
If Damascus ceded security control of Sweida to the Druze, 'of course everyone else is going to demand the same thing', said Abdel Hakim al-Masri, a former official in the Turkish-backed regional government in north-west Syria before Assad's fall.
'This is what we are afraid of,' he told the Associated Press.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Humanitarian aid starts to enter Gaza
Humanitarian aid was airdropped and driven into parts of Gaza on Sunday in response to the worsening hunger crisis in the territory. Israel said it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and establish new aid corridors.


Reuters
38 minutes ago
- Reuters
Syria expected to hold parliamentary election in September
July 27 (Reuters) - Syria is expected to hold its first parliamentary election under the new administration in September, the head of the electoral commission told state news agency SANA on Sunday. Voting for the 210-member People's Assembly is scheduled to take place between September 15 and 20, said Mohamed Taha, who is overseeing the electoral process. President Ahmed al-Sharaa has received a draft electoral law that amends a previous decree and raises the number of seats from 150 to 210. A third of the seats will be appointed by the president. The government has pledged broad representation and said it will allow foreign observers to monitor electoral committees overseeing the vote. Officials said areas outside government control, including Kurdish-held regions in northern Syria and the Druze-majority province of Sweida, would continue to have seats allocated based on population. The new assembly is expected to lay the groundwork for a broader democratic process, which critics say currently lacks sufficient participation from minority groups. It will also be tasked with approving landmark legislation aimed at overhauling decades of state-controlled economic policies and ratifying treaties that could reshape Syria's foreign policy alliances. In March, Syria issued a constitutional declaration to guide the interim period under Sharaa's leadership. The document preserves a central role for Islamic law while guaranteeing women's rights and freedom of expression. It raised concerns of civic groups and Western nations about the concentration of power among the country's Islamist-led leadership.


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Military pause not enough to ease Gaza suffering, Lammy warns
Military pauses promised by Israel will not alone be enough to ease suffering in Gaza, David Lammy has warned as the UK joined efforts to airdrop aid into the territory. The Foreign Secretary welcomed the resumption of humanitarian corridors in the enclave but called for access to supplies to be 'urgently' widened over the coming hours and days. He said Israel's announcement that it would suspend fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day and open secure routes for aid delivery to desperate Palestinians was 'essential but long overdue.' 'This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those desperately suffering in Gaza,' the Foreign Secretary said in a statement on Sunday. 'We need a ceasefire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered. 'Whilst airdrops will help to alleviate the worst of the suffering, land routes serve as the only viable and sustainable means of providing aid into Gaza. 'These measures must be fully implemented and further barriers on aid removed. The world is watching.' Britain is working with Jordan to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance, with military planners deployed for further support. However, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency has warned that such efforts are 'a distraction' that will fail to properly address deepening starvation in the strip, and could in some cases harm civilians. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. 'Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need.' On Sunday, Israel announced military pauses to enable the 'safe movement' of food and medicine to Gaza via designated UN convoys amid mounting international alarm at humanitarian conditions in the strip. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have seen the country's government criticised for its conduct during the 21-month war. Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine as Israel continued to restrict aid, which it says is because Hamas siphons off goods. Ceasefire talks between the two sides ground to a standstill this week after the US and Israel withdrew negotiating teams from Qatar, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of a 'lack of desire' to reach an agreement. Sir Keir Starmer is expected to press Donald Trump on the revival of talks as he meets the US President during his visit to Scotland on Monday. The deal under discussion was expected to include a 60-day ceasefire, and aid supplies would be ramped up as conditions for a lasting truce were brokered. Sir Keir will raise Washington's work with partners in Qatar and Egypt during his talks with Mr Trump and seek to discuss what more can be done to urgently bring about a ceasefire, it is understood. Speaking to journalists at his Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire on Sunday, Mr Trump said that the UK was 'very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen.' Asked about the prospect of restarting peace talks, he said: 'We're meeting about a lot of things… I think we're going to be discussing a lot about Israel. 'They're very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen. '(The Prime Minister) is doing a very good job, by the way.' Later in the week he will chair a Cabinet meeting, with further updates on the UK's next steps expected in the coming days as Mr Lammy prepares to attend a UN conference on a two-state solution in New York. Speaking to broadcasters on Sunday, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray acknowledged that airdrops come with 'real limits and drawbacks' but that the situation was 'desperate and urgent.' 'Until the restrictions are lifted, until aid is able to get in at the scale and quantity that is needed, we need to be doing everything we possibly can to help,' he told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show. It comes after the Prime Minister held crisis talks with French and German counterparts on Saturday, during which Number 10 said they agreed 'it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently-needed ceasefire into lasting peace'. A Downing Street readout of the call made no mention of Palestinian statehood, which Sir Keir has faced calls to immediately recognise after French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would do so in September. Some 221 MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP and independents have signed a letter pressuring the Government to follow suit at a UN meeting next week. The majority of those who have signed, 131, are Labour MPs. The Government says it is a question of 'when, not if' statehood is recognised but that its immediate focus should be on getting aid into the territory. Mr Murray said on Sunday: 'As a Government, we're committed to the recognition of Palestine, but we need to work with international partners and we need to use that moment to galvanise change. 'It needs to be part of a pathway to peace.' He added: '140 countries have already recognised Palestine. 'The suffering is still continuing.' Sir Keir and Mr Trump, who is in South Ayrshire on a private visit to his Turnberry golf course, are expected to meet on Monday.