Netanyahu says Syrian troops barred from region south of Damascus

Yahoo

18-07-2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Syrian government troops will be blocked from the area south of the capital Damascus to protect the Druze minority following Israel's attacks in the country earlier this week.
"We have set forth a clear policy: demilitarization of the region to south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights and to the Druze Mountain area," Netanyahu said in a video address on Thursday. "That's rule number one."
"Rule number two is protecting the brothers of our brothers, the Druze at the Druze Mountain," the Israeli prime minister added.
"We will not allow Syrian army forces to enter the region south of Damascus, and will not allow any harm to the Druze at the Druze Mountain," he said.
The Syrian government deployed troops and other security forces to the country's southern province of Sweida during escalating clashes between Sunni Bedouins and Druze in the Syrian province of Sweida in recent days.
Israel then carried out airstrikes on multiple targets in Damascus on Wednesday, including within the compound of Syria's Defence Ministry, stating that its aim was to protect the Druze minority.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said 15 personnel from Syria's Defence and Interior Ministries were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
The monitor said on Thursday that at least 516 people had been killed in the clashes in Sweida since fighting erupted on July 13.
Netanyahu said that as a result of Israel's intervention, a ceasefire had come into force and the Syrian armed forces had withdrawn to Damascus.
It remained unclear whether a ceasefire agreement announced on Wednesday between Syrian authorities and the spiritual leader of the Druze community, Sheikh Yusuf al-Jarbou, would bring peace, after a local Druze leader rejected the deal.
According to the observatory, the humanitarian situation in Sweida was precarious. Activists called on the international community to provide urgent aid.
The Druze emerged from Shiite Islam in the 11th century and today reside primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Many Druze serve voluntarily in the Israeli army.
Hundreds fled from Syria into Israel
Hundreds of people fled from Syria into Israel amid the violence, Israeli media reported on Thursday.
Israeli security sources confirmed the cross-border movements, without giving numbers. Security forces were in the process of returning the Syrian civilians home, they added.
The Israeli military had returned dozens to the neighbouring country overnight, the ynet news portal wrote. Most of them were said to be members of the Druze religious minority. Efforts were currently under way to locate more Syrian Druze.
The Times of Israel reported that it was unclear how many Syrian Druze remained in Israel.
Report: 1,000 Israeli Druze enter Syria
At the same time, Israeli security sources said the military had brought dozens of Israeli Druze back from Syria overnight.
According to ynet, around 1,000 Druze from Israel had crossed the border into Syria on Wednesday to help protect their brethren from the violence. Many Druze in Israel have relatives in the neighbouring country.
According to the Times of Israel, several dozen Druze from Israel are still in Syria.
Holes in the border fence are now being repaired, the Times reported, citing the military. According to security sources, blockades are being erected to prevent further border crossings. The military warned that crossing the border is a criminal offence.
Media reported that members of the Israeli parliament belonging to the religious minority also crossed the border fence to bring Israeli Druze back home.
Syrian president to Israel: Don't try to drag us into war
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel earlier Thursday of attempting to drag Syria into a war and said his country would not take the bait.
"We, the people of Syria, know very well who is trying to drag us into war and who is working to divide us," al-Sharaa said in a dawn speech broadcast on national television.
"We will not give them the opportunity to entangle our people in a war that serves only to fragment our homeland and sow destruction."
Al-Sharaa blamed Israel for exploiting instability in the wake of regime change, accusing it of targeting civilian infrastructure and seeking to derail reconstruction efforts.
"Power alone does not guarantee victory, and igniting a war is not the same as controlling its outcome," he said. "We are stronger than any attempt to tear us apart."
Addressing the internal unrest in the southern province of Sweida, al-Sharaa said the government had intervened to end armed clashes between local groups.
He said government troops had since handed responsibility back to local militias and promsied to hold the perpetrators of crimes accountable.
Al-Sharaa blamed "outlawed factions" for rejecting dialogue and fuelling disorder while accusing Israel of exploiting the unrest through strikes on civilian infrastructure to derail peace efforts.
He also reaffirmed the Druze community's place in Syrian society, underscoring the state's commitment to protecting their rights and freedoms, and warned against attempts to drag it into foreign agendas. At the same time, he held Druze leaders partly responsible for the clashes.
A direct conflict with Israel had been averted thanks to mediation by the United States, Turkey and Arab states, al-Sharaa said.
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