SWEIDA (Reuters) -Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarized and to protect the Druze minority as deadly clashes continued in the region at the Israeli frontier.
A Reuters reporter said they heard drones and at least four strikes over the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, and saw a damaged tank being towed away. Bursts of gunfire were heard and three bodies were seen on the ground. Dozens of people have been killed in fighting in the region since Sunday.
The surge in violence underlines the challenges facing interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has struggled to assert control over the area near the Israeli border since toppling Bashar al-Assad in December.
While Sharaa has been buoyed by rapidly improving ties with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the violence has highlighted lingering sectarian tensions and distrust among minority groups towards his Islamist-led government – distrust that was deepened by mass killings of Alawites in March.
Syria’s foreign ministry said it held Israel fully responsible for the attack and its consequences, vowing to protect all citizens, including the Druze. Syria’s presidency said the country would take legal action against “anyone proven to have committed violations or abuses, regardless of their rank or position”.
U.S. Syria envoy Tom Barrack said the United States was in contact with all sides “to navigate towards calm and integration”.
Israel, which has struck Syria several times in the name of protecting the Druze, carried out its latest strikes after influential Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri issued a statement accusing government troops of breaching a ceasefire and urging fighters to confront what he described as a barbaric attack.
After al-Hajri appeared in a recorded statement, Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra declared that a complete ceasefire was in place, and said government forces would only open fire if fired upon.
Abu Qasra also said that military police had been ordered to deploy in Sweida to “control military behaviour and hold violators accountable”, state news agency SANA reported.
The Reuters reporter saw men in fatigues burning and looting homes and shops, and setting fire to a store that sold alcohol.
The Druze are a minority group whose faith is an offshoot of Islam and have followers in Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
‘DEEP BROTHERHOOD’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered Israel’s military to strike “regime forces” and weaponry brought to Sweida to be used against the Druze.
In a statement, they said the deployment of government forces was in violation of a demilitarisation policy that had called on Damascus to refrain from bringing forces and weapons that pose a threat to Israel into southern Syria.
“Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherhood alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel,” they said. “We are acting to prevent the Syrian regime from harming them and to ensure the demilitarization of the area adjacent to our border with Syria.
Reuters reported in May that Israel and the Syrian authorities had held direct talks focused on security, after an apparent thaw in tensions.
The latest violence in southwestern Syria began on Sunday with clashes between armed Druze groups and Bedouin fighters in Sweida province, which displaced thousands of people.
The Druze spiritual leadership said in a written statement on Tuesday morning that it would allow Syrian forces to enter Sweida city to stop the bloodshed, calling on armed groups to surrender their weapons and cooperate with incoming troops.
But hours later, al-Hajri, a vocal opponent of the new Syrian leadership, said the statement had been “imposed” on them by Damascus and that Syrian troops had breached the arrangement by continuing to fire on residents.
“We are being subject to a total war of extermination,” he said, calling on all Druze “to confront this barbaric campaign with all means available”.
Convoys of Syrian army tanks, trucks and motorcycles entered parts of Sweida city by mid-morning and were continuing to fire on neighbourhoods there, the Reuters reporter in Sweida said.
On Monday, Israel’s military said it had carried out several strikes on tanks approaching Sweida “to prevent their arrival to the area” because they could pose a threat to Israel.
(Reporting by Karam Masri in Sweida, Khalil Ashawi in Damascus, Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Steven Scheer and Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Writing by Maya Gebeily and Tom Perry; Editing by Gareth Jones and Aidan Lewis)
