The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile post-war transition.

Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins.

Syrian government security forces blocked Bedouin fighters, pictured in the background, from entering Sweida province (Omar Sanadiki/AP)

The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins.

A series of tit-for-tat kidnappings sparked the clashes in various towns and villages in the province, which later spread to Sweida city, the provincial capital.

Government forces were redeployed to halt renewed fighting that erupted on Thursday, before withdrawing again.

Interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, who has been perceived as more sympathetic to the Bedouins, had tried to appeal to the Druze community while remaining critical of the militias.

Dozens of Bedouin fighters, right, remained on the outskirts of the city and were cordoned off by Syrian government security forces (Ghaith Alsayed/AP)

He later urged the Bedouins to leave the city, saying that they “cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country’s affairs and restoring security”.

“We thank the Bedouins for their heroic stances but demand they fully commit to the ceasefire and comply with the state’s orders,” he said in an address broadcast on Saturday.

Dozens of armed Bedouin fighters alongside other clans from around the country who came to support them remained on the outskirts of the city and were cordoned off by government security forces and military police.

They blame the clashes on the Druze factions loyal to spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri and accuse them of harming Bedouin families.

“We will not leave until he turns himself in alongside those with him who tried to stir sedition. And only then will we go home,” Khaled al-Mohammad, who came to the southern province alongside other tribesman from the eastern Deir al-Zour province, told The Associated Press.

The Bedouins’ withdrawal brought a cautious calm to the area, with humanitarian convoys on their way.

The Syrian Red Crescent said on Sunday that it had sent 32 trucks loaded with food, medicine, water, fuel and other aid, after the fighting left the province with power cuts and shortages.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that the convoy entered Sweida on Sunday, but accused Mr al-Hijri and his armed Druze supporters of turning back a government delegation that accompanied another convoy.

The foreign ministry in a statement said the convoy accompanying the delegation had two ambulances loaded with aid provided by local and international organisations.

Mr al-Hijri did not directly respond to the accusations but said in a statement that he welcomed any assistance for Sweida and slammed what he claims were distorted campaigns against him.

“We reaffirm that we have no dispute with anyone on any religious or ethnic basis,” the statement read.

A convoy of vehicles loaded with food and other aid en route to Sweida (Omar Sanadiki/AP)

“Shame and disgrace be upon all those who seek to sow discord and hatred in the minds of young people.”

The UN International Organisation for Migration said 128,571 people were displaced during the clashes, including 43,000 on Saturday alone.

Washington’s special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said the clashes and atrocities “overshadowed” an initial cautious optimism about the country’s post-war transition and the international community’s lifting of sanctions.

“All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance,” Mr Barrack said on X.

“Syria stands at a critical juncture — peace and dialogue must prevail — and prevail now.”

Israeli forces kill 67 Palestinians seeking aid in northern Gaza, Hamas-run ministry says

42 minutes ago Share Save Yolande Knell and Jack Burgess Middle East correspondent Reporting from Jerusalem Share Save

Reuters Palestinians pictured carrying aid supplies in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Sunday

The Israeli military has killed at least 67 people waiting for UN aid lorries in northern Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says. The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy “encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire”, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it had “fired warning shots” to remove “an immediate threat”. It disputed the number of reported deaths. On Saturday the ministry warned that extreme hunger was increasing in Gaza and growing numbers of people were arriving at its facilities “in a state of extreme exhaustion and fatigue”.

“We warn that hundreds of people whose bodies have wasted away are at risk of imminent death due to hunger,” it said. The UN has also said civilians in Gaza are starving and called for an urgent influx of essential goods. On Sunday the ministry said it had recorded 18 deaths “due to famine” over the past 24 hours. Many of the casualties from northern Gaza were taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The medical director there, Dr Hassan al-Shaer, told BBC Arabic on Sunday the facility had been “overwhelmed”. Outside the hospital one woman told BBC Arabic that “the whole population is dying”. “Children are dying of hunger because they have nothing to eat. People are surviving on water and salt… just water and salt,” she said. In an updated death toll, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire had killed a total of 93 people and wounded dozens more across Gaza on Sunday. Eighty people were killed in northern Gaza, it said, while nine people were shot dead near an aid point in Rafah and four more near an aid point in Khan Younis, both in southern Gaza. In Gaza City, Qasem Abu Khater told AFP he had attempted to get a bag of flour but instead found a desperate crowd and “deadly overcrowding and pushing”. “The tanks were firing shells randomly at us and Israeli sniper soldiers were shooting as if they were hunting animals in a forest,” he said. “Dozens of people were martyred right before my eyes and no one could save anyone.” The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) condemned violence against civilians seeking aid as “completely unacceptable”. There have been almost daily reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking food since late May. On Saturday at least 32 people were killed by Israeli gunfire near two aid distribution points in southern Gaza, according to the ministry. Many of the incidents have taken place near sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which uses private security contractors to distribute aid from sites in Israeli military zones, but some have taken place near aid brought in by the UN.

Getty Images People gathered near Shifa hospital as the bodies of those killed waiting for aid were brought in

Bedouins tell BBC they could return to fighting Druze in Syria

Watch: BBC report from last checkpoint before Suewida city

Bedouin fighters positioned outside the southern Syrian city of Suweida have told the BBC they will observe a ceasefire with the Druze community there, but have not ruled out resuming hostilities.

The Bedouin fighters have retreated from the city to surrounding villages in the province after a week of deadly sectarian clashes between Druze fighters, Bedouins and government forces, with Israel carrying out air strikes in support of the Druze.

On Sunday a UK-based monitoring group said there was a “cautious calm” in the region – but later said tribal fighters had attacked villages.

From the town of al-Mazara’a – a Druze town until last week when it was taken over by the Bedouin and now under Syrian government control – smoke could be seen across the fields rising from Suweida city.

At a nearby checkpoint a mound of dirt cut across the road. Dozens of government security personnel were standing along it, all heavily armed and blocking the Bedouin from re-entering the city.

Hundreds of Bedouin fighters, many firing guns into the air, crowded the road.

They want the release of injured Bedouin people still in the city of Suweida, who they refer to as hostages. Otherwise, they say, they will force their way past the checkpoint and head back into the city.

“We did what the government have ordered us and we are committed to the agreement, and the government words and we came back, Suweida is 35km far from here,” a tribal elder told the BBC.

“Currently our hostages and wounded are there, they are refusing to give us anyone… If they don’t commit to the agreement we are going to enter again, even if Suweida will become our cemetery.”

Syria struggles to quell deadly Bedouin-Druze clashes in south

17 hours ago Share Save Jon Donnison • @jondonnisonbbc BBC News, Damascus Jaroslav Lukiv & Amy Walker BBC News Share Save

Watch: Sectarian clashes continue in Syria despite ceasefire

Sectarian clashes have continued in southern Syria despite an “immediate ceasefire” announced by the country’s president. Reports say that Druze fighters on Saturday pushed out Bedouin gunmen from the city of Suweida – but fighting continued in other parts of the province. This has not been verified by the BBC. Government forces deployed earlier this week by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa were blamed for joining in attacks on the Druze. More than 900 people are reported to have been killed in the past week. All sides are accused of atrocities. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, demanded an end to “the rape and slaughter of innocent people” in Syria, in a post on X on Saturday.

Rubio wrote: “If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria free of ISIS [Islamic State] and of Iranian control they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent ISIS and any other violent jihadists from entering the area and carrying out massacres. “And they must hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks,” the top US diplomat added.

Reuters Bedouin fighters have reportedly been pushed out of the city of Suweida

On Saturday evening, the Syrian interior ministry said clashes in Suweida had been halted after the intervention of its forces in the city. Reuters news agency reported that fighting persisted in other parts of Suweida province. Earlier this week, Israel declared support for the Druze and intervened, hitting government forces and the defence ministry in the capital Damascus.

Sharaa announced a ceasefire on Saturday as Syrian security forces were deployed to Suweida to end the clashes. The deal included a halt to Israeli military strikes and was approved by Israel as part of a US-brokered pact, as long as the Druze citizens were protected. Government troops have been setting up checkpoints to try to prevent more people joining the fighting. But gunfire was reported inside Suweida earlier on Saturday. A correspondent for AFP news agency said they had seen armed men looting shops and setting fire to them.

Also on Saturday, Israel’s foreign minister cast doubt on the renewed pledge by the president to protect minorities and all Syrians. Suweida’s Druze community follows a secretive, unique faith derived from Shia Islam, and distrusts the current government in Damascus. They are a minority in Syria, as well as in neighbouring Israel and Lebanon. In a social media post, Gideon Saar said it was “very dangerous” to be part of a minority in Syria, and “this has been proven time and again over the past six months”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to prevent harm to the Druze in Syria because of their ties to those living in Israel. Watch: How a day of bombing unfolded in Damascus Long-running tensions between Druze and Bedouin tribes in Suweida erupted into deadly sectarian clashes last Sunday, following the abduction of a Druze merchant on the highway to Damascus. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), 940 people have been killed since then. The ceasefire between Israel and Syria on Friday was announced by US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack on Friday. “We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbours,” he said. The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab, reporting from Syria, said violence towards the Druze has been spreading across the country.

Several days of bitter sectarian fighting in the south of Syria has brought the fledgling government in Damascus dangerously close to direct conflict with Israel, after Israeli warplanes launched strikes against government buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on July 16.

The United Nations and a number of countries condemned the attacks, which the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said were “escalatory airstrikes”. Yet Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, triumphantly used the social media site X to post a video of a Syrian news anchor diving for cover during the strikes.

Efforts to agree a ceasefire in the region have faltered and fighting between Druze and Bedouin militias in the southern Syrian province of Sweida is understood to have resumed. The BBC has reported that at least 600 people have been killed in the fighting so far.

The violence was seemingly sparked by a petty crime. On July 11, a Bedouin gang allegedly kidnapped and robbed a Druze merchant and the road between Sweida and Damascus. This prompted a series of tit-for-tat sectarian kidnappings and killings.

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On July 14, Syrian security forces entered the province to restore order, only to be ambushed by Druze fighters. Reports of these fighters executing government forces caused outrage throughout the country. Syria’s government then sent more troops, including tanks and heavy weapons.

But as these reinforcements arrived, they were met by a new challenge: more deadly and prolific Israeli airstrikes against government forces.

Weak central government

This cycle of violence exemplifies the underlying cause of the recent conflict. Syria’s interim central government lacks the credibility and capacity to exert its authority throughout the country.

This is particularly true in Sweida, which has been de facto autonomous for many years. The overstretched Assad regime largely withdrew from the province, during the decade of civil war. When his regime fell, many of the local militias which had served as Sweida’s de facto rulers were reluctant to surrender their weapons.

The recent violence exemplifies why this is a problem. Absent a strong local state, Druze militias took it upon themselves to exact justice, allegedly leading them to attack innocent Bedouins. This led the Bedouins to mobilise in self-defence. There are reports of violence and summary executions on both sides and also by government troops.

Syria’s Druze have good reason not to trust the new regime in Damascus, given the latter’s jihadist roots and history of anti-Druze violence during the civil war. The Sweida Military Council (SMC), a Druze militia led by the Venezualan-born cleric, Hikmet al-Hiji, were hostile to the new government almost from the outset. Other Druze militias in Sweida and elsewhere, however, were in tentative negotiations with Damascus to integrate into government control.

That would be a welcome and necessary step for creating trust in Syria’s new administration and increasing its capacity and capability to rule throughout the country.

But this process has now been derailed. Damascus’s mass mobilisation of troops, tanks and heavy weapons was condemned by all Sweida’s Druze factions, including those formerly close to the government. Some of these groups even fought the advancing security forces.

EPA/Atef Safadi

After government troops withdrew as part of the most recent ceasefire agreement, the province has quickly returned to the same chaotic militia rule that first caused the violence. Bedouin militias have already rejected the ceasefire and resumed hostilities against their Druze rivals.

Israel’s position

The recent violence has not only exacerbated sectarian tensions throughout Syria, it has also disrupted the tentative Israel-Syria peace process. Just one week ago, observers speculated that Israel and Syria might normalise relations. That now looks increasingly unlikely.

When the Assad regime fell in December 2024, Israel occupied swaths of Syrian territory and launched an unprecedented number of strikes throughout the country. Under heavy US pressure, though, Israel moderated its policies. It even began direct negotiations with Syria’s new government.

But as the conflict in southern Syria escalated, Jerusalem warned Damascus that a mass deployment of the state’s security forces within the province would cross a red line, because it would bring Syrian troops close to Israel’s borders. It would also endanger Syria’s Druze, a community that Israel’s government have sworn to protect.

But the fledgling Syrian government has said it aims to be an inclusive, centrally run – rather than a federal – state, so it has to bring Druze and other minorities, such as Syria’s Kurds, into the fold and put an end to the sectarian clashes.

By subsequently escalating its attacks, killing more members of the state security forces than since the Assad regime fell and humiliating the government by destroying its institutions in Damascus, Israel got the result it wanted.

It did so, according to Benjamin Netanyahu, through “forceful actions”. The Israel prime minister told journalists on July 17 that: “We have established a clear policy: the demilitarization of the area south of Damascus and the protection of our brothers, the Druze.”

Israel was faced with a choice: continue imposing its will on Syria militarily, or cooperate with the country’s new government. It has apparently chosen the former.

The fact is that in Sweida, and elsewhere in the fractured country, Syria remains a state with too many guns, gangs, militias and powerful external interests vying for control. Its heterogeneous population increasingly distrust one another and rely on their own ethno-religious groups to fulfil the responsibilities that a weak and distrusted central government cannot.

That distrust continues to flare into open violence in southern Syria. And it appears there is little the fragile central government can do about it.