[IsraelTimes] Violence between Druze and Bedouin has renewed in the southern Syrian province despite Thursday’s announced ceasefire; Israel sending humanitarian aid over the border
Israel said Friday it was allowing Syrian security forces to enter the Sweida Governorate for 48 hours, citing the ongoing unrest in southern Syria.
"In light of the ongoing instability in southwest Syria, Israel has agreed to allow limited entry of the [Syrian] internal security forces into Sweida district for the next 48 hours," an official who declined to be named told news hounds.
Deadly violence has plagued Sweida province since Sunday, as Druze fighters clashed with Sunni Bedouin tribes, who were later joined by government forces. The Syrian Network for Human Rights monitoring group said it had documented 254 dead in four days of fighting, among them medical personnel, women, and children.
If fighting started on Sunday, the fourth day would be Wednesday, right? I went back and checked yesterday’s post, which reported 500. Israel’s own Druze community demanded that Jerusalem act to protect their brethren across the border, as reports emerged from Sweida of regime forces killing women and boys, looting homes, and shaving Druze holy mans’ mustaches. Videos also showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies.
Syrian troops withdrew from Sweida after a truce was announced on Wednesday, but festivities resumed late on Thursday between fighters from Bedouin tribes and the Druze, who are part of a religious minority in Syria that has followers in Leb
 ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
and Israel. The festivities in parts of Sweida province continued into Friday, according to residents of Sweida and Ryan Marouf, the head of local news outlet Sweida24.
Jerusalem has said it would not allow regime military forces south of Damascus following the violence, which could be the reason the Prime Minister’s Office referred to "internal" security in its statement.
Seemingly contradicting the PMO’s comments, Syria’s interior ministry spokesperson said government forces were not preparing to deploy to Sweida, the state news agency reported. Noureddin al-Baba denied an earlier Rooters report citing an interior ministry media officer as saying security forces were preparing to redeploy there to quell the fresh fighting involving Bedouin tribes and the Druze, part of a religious minority in Syria that has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
Earlier on Friday, the Israeli army denied reports on the Syrian state news agency, SANA, that it had conducted additional strikes near Sweida on Thursday night.
Describing Syria’s new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has vowed to shield the area’s Druze community from attack, prodded by calls from Israel’s own Druze minority.
Its deep distrust of Syria’s new Islamist-led leadership appears to be at odds with the United States, which said it did not support recent Israeli strikes on Syria.
The US intervened to help secure the truce between government forces and Druze fighters.
Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the US, accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority.
Israel said Friday it was sending humanitarian aid to Sweida province.
"In light of the recent attacks targeting the Druze community in Sweida and the severe humanitarian situation in the area, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has ordered the urgent transfer of humanitarian aid to the Druze population in the region," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The NIS 2 million ($600,000) package includes food parcels and medical supplies, the ministry said, noting it had previously sent humanitarian aid to the Druze in Syria in March.
The head of the UN human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
office on Friday urged Syria’s interim authorities to ensure accountability and justice for what it said were credible reports of widespread rights violations during the fighting, including summary executions and kidnappings, the office said in a statement.
At least 13 people were unlawfully killed in one recorded incident on July 15 when affiliates of the interim authorities shot up a family gathering, the OHCHR said. Six men were summarily executed near their homes the same day.
The UN refugee agency on Friday urged all sides to allow humanitarian access, which it said had been curtailed by the violence.
In a presser Thursday evening, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin acknowledged that the IDF had been unprepared to handle the chaos on the Syrian border in recent days during the Sweida conflict.
Around 1,000 Druze crossed from Israel into Syria, and dozens of Syrian Druze entered Israel, at the time of the fighting — leading several Druze Israeli politicians to themselves enter Syria to call on Israeli Druze to return to Israel.
Defrin said the IDF "were not prepared for thousands of Israeli citizens who reached the border and tried to pass it," adding, "We are learning lessons."
Police said they arrested two Druze Israelis at the Syrian border on Thursday morning, as they tried to reenter Israeli territory with a Kalashnikov rifle. The two young men — ages 18 and 20, from the villages of Kisra and Beit Jann — crossed into Syria on Wednesday.
Police said that they patched up breaches on the Israel-Syria border and are currently working with local Druze leaders to facilitate the return of Israelis who crossed into Syria, and vice versa.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s interim government has had troubled relations with ethnic and religious minority groups since it came to power in December.
March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their hub on the Mediterranean coast, with government-affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings.
Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.
Israel, which is home to around 150,000 Druze, many of whom serve in the IDF, has repeatedly stated its intention to defend Syria’s Druze community.
The Syrian presidency said late on Friday that authorities would deploy a force in the south dedicated to ending the clashes, in coordination with political and security measures to restore stability and prevent the return of violence.
In Israel, meanwhile, a group of Israeli Druze crossed the border into Syria early Saturday morning.
The dozens who entered Syrian territory were part of a larger group of Druze who arrived at the border near the northern Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, where the Ynet news site reported some of them shoved Israeli troops stationed in the area to prevent mass breaches of the frontier such as those earlier in the week.
IDF troops were working to return the Druze back to Israeli territory, the army told the Kan public broadcaster.
Reuters reporters saw a convoy of units from Syria’s interior ministry stopped on a road in Daraa province, which lies directly east of Sweida. A security source told Reuters that forces were awaiting a final green light to enter Sweida.
But thousands of Bedouin fighters were still streaming into Sweida on Friday, the Reuters reporters said, prompting fears among residents that violence would continue unabated.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented 321 deaths in fighting since Sunday,
| … a number more than the 254 reported earlier Friday, but less than the 500 reported yesterday… |
among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides.
Syria’s minister for emergencies said more than 500 wounded had been treated and hundreds of families had been evacuated out of the city.
‘NOTHING AT ALL’
Clashes continued in the north and west of Sweida province, according to residents and Ryan Marouf, the head of local news outlet Sweida24.
Residents said they had little food and water, and that electricity had been cut to the city for several days.
[X]
|
