22-07-2025
'They shot patients in beds' – BBC hears claims of massacre at Suweida hospital
Syrian government forces have been accused of carrying out a massacre at a hospital during sectarian clashes which erupted just over a week ago. The BBC has visited Suweida's National Hospital where staff claim patients were killed inside This story contains descriptions of violence
The stench hit me before anything the car park of the main hospital in Suweida City, dozens of decomposing corpses are lined up in white plastic body are open to the elements, revealing bloated and mutilated remains of those who were killed tarmac beneath my feet is greasy and slippery with blood.
In the sweltering sun, the smell is overwhelming."It was a massacre," Dr Wissam Massoud, a Neurosurgeon at the hospital tells me."The soldiers came here saying they wanted to bring peace, but they killed scores of patients from the very young to the very old."Earlier this week, Dr Massoud sent me a video which he said was in the immediate aftermath of the government it, a woman shows you around the hospital. On the ground in the wards are dozens of dead patients still bundled up in their bloodied bed sheets.
Everyone here, doctors, nurses, volunteers say the same last Wednesday evening, it was Syrian government troops targeting the Druze community who came to the hospital and carried out the Abu Motab, a volunteer at the hospital, said of the victims: "What is their crime? Just for being a minority in a democratic country?""They are criminals. They are monsters. We don't trust them at all," Osama Malak an English teacher in the city told me outside the hospital gates."They shot an eight-year-old disabled boy in the head," he said."According to international law, hospitals should be protected. But they attacked us even in the hospitals."They entered the hospital. They started shooting everybody. They shot the patients in their beds as they slept."All sides in this conflict have been accusing each other of committing Bedouin and Druze fighters as well as the Syrian Army have been accused killing civilians and extra judicial killings.
There is not yet a clear picture of what happened at the hospital. Some here estimate the number of people to be killed last Wednesday at more than 300 but that figure cannot be Tuesday night the Syrian defence ministry said in a statement it was aware of reports of "shocking violations" by people wearing military fatigues in the country's predominantly Druze city this week Raed Saleh, the Syrian Minister for Disaster Management and Emergency Response, told me that any allegations of atrocities committed by all sides would be fully investigated.
Who are the Druze and why did Israel attack Syria?Bedouins tell BBC they could return to fighting Druze in SyriaBBC sees fragile ceasefire holding in Syria's battle-scarred Suweida province
Access to Suweida City has been heavily restricted meaning gathering first hand evidence has been city is in effect under siege with Syrian government forces restricting who is allowed in and get in we had to pass through numerous we entered the city, we passed burned out shops and buildings, cars that had been crushed my City had clearly seen a serious battle between Druze fighters and Bedouin was at that point that the Syrian government first intervened to try and enforce a ceasefire.
Although numerous Druze villages in Suweida province have been recaptured by government forces, Suweida City, home to more than 70,000 people, remains under full Druze we left the hospital, we found eight-year-old Hala Al Khatib sitting on a bench with her face is bloodied and bandaged. She appears to have lost an tells us that gunmen came and shot her in the head at she was hiding in a cupboard in her doesn't know it, but both Hala's parents are dead.
