Fighters attack Syrian forces as ceasefire breaks down
The renewed violence follows deadly clashes between Druze and Sunni Bedouins in July that drew the intervention of Syrian government forces and tribal fighters who came to support the Bedouins. Israel also entered the fray, carrying out strikes on Syrian troops in support of the Druze, an Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority with communities in Israel.
A ceasefire put an end to the week of bloodshed – which killed 1,400 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – but the situation remained tense, flaring into violence again on Sunday.
Syria's state-run Ekhbariya TV reported that one member of the Syrian government forces was killed by the armed gang.
Unconfirmed reports also suggested Druze militants had conquered an area west of Sweida from regime forces.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops questioned 'several suspects' overnight who are thought to be involved in weapons trafficking in the Hader area in southern Syria.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said troops entered four locations simultaneously and located 'numerous weapons that the suspects had been trafficking'.
Israel entered the conflict last month when Druze civilians were attacked by regime forces, launching airstrikes on government military positions as well as the defence ministry headquarter in Damascus.
Hundreds of Israeli Druze crossed the border from Israeli-controlled Golan Heights into Syria to defend their family members from the attacks by regime forces and Bedouin tribes.
Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, told ambassadors in the Security Council last week that 'Syrians are reeling after appalling violence in Sweida – violence that should not have happened and which also saw unacceptable foreign intervention'.
Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, said the city of Sweida was 'teetering on the edge of collapse'.
'The recent violence in Sweida has displaced an estimated 175,000 people... a third of the population in the governorate, where two thirds of people were already in need of assistance,' she said last week.
Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Syria's new president, has struggled to unite the country after toppling Bashar al-Assad in December last year.
Several rounds of sectarian violence have erupted since, with his regime forces accused of committing atrocities against the Alawite and Druze minorities.
The IDF took control last year of a buffer zone established in 1974 between Israel and Syria.
Israel said it wouldn't allow a 'jihadi' presence on its border after the fall of the Assad regime, while promising to protect the Druze minority in southern Syria.
The Syrian government has lashed out at Israel for attacking its territory and grabbing new territory, while some Druze in Syria and Lebanon have accused Israel of stoking sectarian divisions to seize more land.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
32 minutes ago
- Fox News
Johnson dines with Netanyahu in landmark visit, highest US official to visit occupied West Bank
FIRST ON FOX: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson dined with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Judea and Samaria on Monday, in a visit that marked the most senior visit from a U.S. official to what is still internationally considered the occupied West Bank, but which has become a highly divisive topic in the U.S. Though the dinner discussion largely focused on the ongoing war in Gaza and how to better secure aid deliveries as Hamas continues wreck on food access, Fox News Digital confirmed with Heather Johnston, the founder of the U.S. Israel Education Association – whose organization planned Johnson's trip – that he and his delegation will also be meeting with Palestinian leaders during his Middle East visit. Johnson, whose visit is considered a "private" trip and not an official state visit as it was organized by the association, also met with Israeli officials in the city of Ariel ealier on Tuesday – just over 10 miles from the Green Line, the armistice line marking the borders between Israel and the disputed Palestinian territories. Though it is not unusual for members of Congress to travel to Israel under private means, including previous Speakers of the House like Kevin McCarthy who also met with Netanyahu in 2023, the location of the Johnson-Netanyahu dinner is significant. Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation that would require all official U.S. documents to use the name "Judea and Samaria" rather than the West Bank, which it argues has become a "highly divisive label." Judea and Samaria refers to the historical and religious ties Israel has to an area that is internationally recognized as the West Bank, and which Israel captured from Jordan during the 1967 war after Amman first seized the territory of Mandatory Palestine, now dubbed the West Bank, during the Israel-Arab war of 1948. It has since been deemed illegally occupied by the UN and the international community, though the U.S. has fluctuated over its views of the occupation status since President Donald Trump first entered office in 2017. Trump evaded questions earlier this year over whether he would support Israel's annexation of parts of the West Bank despite his strong support for Jerusalem. But regardless of whether it has the backing of Israel's chief ally, top officials in Netanyahu's administration have made clear they intend to annex territory officially and less than two weeks ago the Israeli government passed a non-binding resolution that said Jerusalem should "apply Israeli sovereignty, law, judgment and administration" to the West Bank. Johnson's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's questions about the significance of his visit. Though it could suggest U.S. lawmakers may take a more decisive role in backing Israel's expansionist plans as the Trump administration looks to end Israel's war in Gaza while still opposing European and Arab nation's increased push for an independent state of Palestine. The Times of Israel also reported last week that Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the latter of which who Johnson met with on Sunday, believe that "at this very moment, there is a moment of opportunity that must not be missed" to implement "Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria." The report did not confirm why this moment in time is so significant.
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'A fake narrative': Footage of 'bustling' Gaza markets counter Hamas starvation claims
While asserting 'aid is flowing in, by land and by air every day,' COGAT asserted that 'Hamas is pushing a fake famine narrative' while stealing the aid and selling it at a large mark-up. The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories shared footage on Monday of bustling markets with large quantities of food to counter Hamas's accusations that Israel is deliberately causing a famine in the Gaza Strip. The footage shows fresh produce being sold, along with pastry shops being open. While asserting 'aid is flowing in, by land and by air every day,' COGAT asserted that 'Hamas is pushing a fake famine narrative' while stealing the aid and selling it at a large markup. 'Bitter truth: Hamas is starving its own people. They steal the food, hoard the aid, and sell it at sky-high prices,' COGAT said. 'The food is there. The aid is there. Hamas just keeps it from those who need it most.' The COGAT video was released after Hamas released videos of emaciated hostages, claiming that they were being subjected to the same starvation as the rest of the Gaza Strip over an apparent lack of resources being transferred to the Gaza Strip. Claims of famine in Gaza Additionally, the IDF confirmed on Monday that as part of the cooperation between Israel, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, Belgium, and Canada, the IDF and COGAT led a series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip. As part of the efforts, 120 aid packets were dropped across the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed group, has been transferring food to the Gaza Strip after Hamas stole aid from humanitarian groups working in the Gaza Strip. While GHF and Israel have denied there is famine in the Gaza Strip, Hamas-run authorities have complained of widespread hunger. Hamas authorities have also alleged that more than a thousand people were killed at GHF aid sites, an accusation denied by both GHF and Israel. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘No one should act surprised,' says UN expert who warned of starvation in Gaza last year
The UN expert who first warned that Israel was orchestrating a campaign of deliberate mass starvation in Gaza more than 500 days ago, has said that governments and corporations cannot claim to be surprised at the horror now unfolding. 'Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it's always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024,' Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian. 'Israel is starving Gaza. It's genocide. It's a crime against humanity. It's a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it, I feel like Cassandra,' said Fakhri, referring to the Greek mythological figure whose warnings and predictions were ignored. On 9 October 2023 – two days after the deadly Hamas attack – Israel's then defense minister, Yoav Gallant, declared a 'complete siege' of Gaza and said he would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel. By December 2023, Gazans accounted for 80% of the people in the world experiencing catastrophic hunger, according to UN and international aid agency figures. Related: The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza Now, widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving the sharp rise in hunger-related deaths across Gaza, with more than 20,000 children hospitalized for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative that provides real-time data on hunger and famine for the UN and aid groups. The 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out' across the Gaza Strip, the IPC warned in an alert earlier this week. Fakhri was among the first to warn about the impending famine – and the need for urgent action to stop Israel from starving 2 million people in Gaza. In an interview with the Guardian published on 28 February 2024, Fakhri said: 'We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts … Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian … this is now a situation of genocide.' The following month, the international court of justice recognized the risk of genocide in Gaza and drew attention to the 'spread of famine and starvation'. The ICJ said that Israel must immediately take all necessary and effective measures, in cooperation with the UN, to ensure unfettered access to humanitarian aid including food, water, shelter, fuel and medicines. In May, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister Gallant became the first ever individuals to be formally accused by an international court of deliberate starvation, which is a war crime. In July 2024, a group of UN experts including Fakhri declared a famine after the first deaths from starvation were reported in Gaza. Fakhri also published a detailed report for the UN into Israel's decades-long control over food production and supplies to Palestinians, a stranglehold which meant 80% of people in Gaza were dependent on aid when Gallant announced the current siege in October 2023. Yet there has been little or no action to stop Israel starving Palestinians, which it has achieved by systematically destroying local food production (greenhouses, orchards, farmland) and blocking aid – in violation of international law. According to Fakhri, this is why famine has now taken hold in Gaza. 'Famine is always political, always predictable and always preventable. But there is no verb to famine. We don't famine people, we starve them – and that inevitably leads to famine if no political action is taken to avoid it. 'But to frame the mass starvation as a consequence of the most recent blockade, is a misunderstanding of how starvation works and what's going on in Gaza. People don't all of a sudden starve, children don't wither away that quickly. This is because they have been deliberately weakened for so long. The state of Israel itself has used food as a weapon since its creation. It can and does loosen and tighten its starvation machine in response to pressure; it has been fine-tuning this for 25 years.' Despite stark images of skeletal Palestinians, the Israeli government and some of its allies have continued to insist that the hunger is the result of logistical problems, not a state policy. Last week Netanyahu said: 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza. There is no starvation in Gaza.' Unicef is among multiple aid agencies to confirm that malnutrition and starvation have escalated since early March 2025 – when Israel unilaterally violated a ceasefire agreed after Donald Trump returned to the White House. Israel reinstated a total blockade after allowing some aid trucks in during the ceasefire, though UN agencies and charities on the ground said it was never enough to fully meet the needs of the starved, sick and weakened population. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an opaque logistics group backed by Israel and the Trump administration, began operations in May, with armed security provided by private contractors and the Israeli military. It was authorized to replace 400 UN distribution hubs with just four across Gaza, in response to unproven claims that international aid was being diverted by Hamas. The UN and hundreds of aid groups condemned the move as a weaponization of aid that violated long-established humanitarian norms. On 1 June, Israeli soldiers killed 32 people at GHF sites, and since then more than 1,300 starving Palestinians have been killed trying to access food. Israel has long sought to discredit and weaken the UN and other international mechanisms including the courts, which it sees as hostile to its ongoing de facto annexation of Palestinian territories, accusing them of antisemitism. 'This is using aid not for humanitarian purposes, but to control populations, to move them, to humiliate and weaken people as part of their military tactics. The GHF is so frightening because it might be the new militarized dystopia of aid of the future,' Fakhri said. In a statement, GHF rejected the reports of Palestinian deaths as 'false and exaggerated statistics' and accused the UN of not doing enough. 'If the UN and other groups would collaborate with us, we could end the starvation, desperation and violent incidents almost overnight. We could scale up, add more distribution sites and ramp up direct-to-community delivery which GHF is piloting now,' a spokesperson said. The Israeli government did not respond to request for comment. The deaths from starvation and aid-hub massacres come on top of at least 60,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs and tanks. Studies have concluded that the real death toll is almost certainly much higher, and Israel has continued to deny international researchers and journalists entry into Gaza. Fakhri and other UN experts have repeatedly urged member states and corporations to act to stop the bombs and famine by cutting financial and military aid and trade with Israel, as well as broad-based economic and political sanctions. 'I see stronger political language, more condemnation, more plans proposed, but despite the change in rhetoric, we're still in the phase of inaction. The politicians and corporations have no excuse, they're really shameful. The fact that millions of people are mobilizing in growing numbers shows that everyone in the world understands how many different countries, corporations and individuals are culpable.' Fakhri argues that in light of the US persistent vetoing of ceasefire resolutions at the UN security council, it is incumbent on the UN general assembly to call for peacekeepers to accompany humanitarian convoys into Gaza. 'They have the majority of votes, and most importantly, millions of people are demanding this. Ordinary people are trying to break through an illegal blockade to deliver humanitarian aid, to implement international law their governments are failing to do. Why else do we have peacekeepers if not to end genocide and prevent starvation?' Solve the daily Crossword
