
Syria's leader urges Bedouin tribes to commit to a ceasefire ending clashes with the Druze
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Israel had launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and even struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus, saying it was in support of the Druze, who form a substantial community in Israel and are seen as a loyal minority, often serving in the Israeli military.
Reports had surfaced of Syrian government-affiliated fighters executing Druze civilians and looting and burning homes over the four-day violence.
The U.S. envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, announced that Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire early Saturday. Al-Sharaa made no direct reference to the agreement in his speech, but said 'American and Arab mediations stepped in' to restore calm.
Addressing the Bedouins, al-Sharaa said they 'cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country's affairs and restoring security.' He also said: 'We thank the Bedouins for their heroic stances but demand they fully commit to the ceasefire and comply with the state's orders.'
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Meanwhile, a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who opposes the current government and has distanced himself from the two ceasefires announced on Tuesday and Wednesday, said that an agreement brokered under the sponsorship of guarantor states contained several measures aimed at de-escalating tensions in Sweida.
They include the deployment of checkpoints outside the province's administrative borders to contain clashes and prevent infiltration, a 48-hour ban on entry by any party into border villages, and safe, guaranteed passage for remaining members of the Bedouin tribes still inside the province.
Sharaa reiterated that Sweida 'remains an integral part of the Syrian state, and the Druze constitute a fundamental pillar of the Syrian national fabric,' vowing to protect all minorities in Syria.
He also thanked the United States for its 'significant role in affirming its support for Syria during these difficult times,' as well as Arab countries and Turkey, which mediated Wednesday's truce.
More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
The U.N. estimates more than 87,000 people have been displaced in Sweida province since July 12 due to heavy shelling, sniper fire and abductions.
Entire communities have fled on foot, with many now crammed into overcrowded schools, churches and public buildings under dire conditions, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report. Infrastructure damage has cut electricity, water and telecommunications in much of the area, it said. The main hospital in Sweida was operating at just 15% capacity due to staff shortages and a lack of fuel.
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The security situation is also endangering humanitarian workers. The White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense, reported that one of its emergency team leaders went missing on July 16 while responding to a call for help from a U.N. team, OCHA said.
Meanwhile, Jordan, Syria, and the U.S. agreed on a set of practical steps to bolster the ceasefire, including the deployment of Syrian security forces and the release of detainees from all sides, Jordan's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. The announcement came after a meeting between Barrack, Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi.
For his part, Syria's Minister of Information Hamza Al-Mostafa on Saturday said the first phase of the ceasefire, expected to take 48 hours, involves deploying internal security forces to key areas to prevent clashes. He acknowledged ongoing fighting in Sweida and said every ceasefire 'begins fragile.'
Subsequent phases will open humanitarian crossings and gradually restore state institutions and security to ensure a return to normalcy, al-Mostafa said in a press conference in Damascus.
Al-Mostafa acknowledged that some security personnel committed violations after deploying in Sweida. He rejected reports that the violence in Sweida was 'premeditated operation' by the Syrian government.
'The armed groups present in Sweida insisted on a provocative approach, rejecting any solutions and relying on a closed-off model that disregards Syria's unity,' Al-Mostafa said.
He accused Al-Hijri and his supporters of being 'armed with Israeli support' and blamed them for 'steering the situation toward its current state,' despite previous government attempts to reach an agreement.
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Al-Mostafa also denied that Syria and Israel are in direct peace talks. 'All discussions that are happening with Israel are fixated on one issue related to the urgent Israeli withdrawal from the areas that it occupied and advanced in after Dec. 8 and its commitment to the 1974 agreement of disengagement,' he said.
But even as officials called for calm, signs of unrest spread to the capital. On Friday, men armed with sticks stormed a peaceful protest outside Syria's parliament in Damascus, beating demonstrators and tearing up a banner that read, 'Syrian blood should not be shed by Syrians,' according to one of the organizers.
The protest was held in response to the deadly clashes in Sweida, which journalist and filmmaker Zein Khuzam described as a grim echo of the 2011 Syrian civil war.
'We felt like we needed to do something,' Khuzam told The Associated Press. 'We started receiving help messages from our friends in Sweida, that they are trapped there.'
The demonstration began Thursday as a spontaneous act by Khuzam and two others, who stood in front of parliament holding signs, including slogans rejecting Israeli interference. Photos of the protest circulated online, drawing a larger crowd the next day.
Khuzam said the group noticed a man acting suspiciously on Friday. After making a phone call, he left, and shortly afterward, the attackers arrived in cars, some with women inside who cheered them on, she said.
She added that guards outside the parliament stood by as someone fired shotgun rounds to disperse the crowd.
'People are still carrying the traumas of Assad's actions during such peaceful protests,' she said. 'In that moment, it felt like history was repeating itself. It is very, very sad.'
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Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalist Omar Sanadiki in Damascus contributed to this report.
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
USAID analysis found no evidence of massive Hamas theft of Gaza aid
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A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, questioned the existence of the analysis, saying no State Department official had seen it and that it "was likely produced by a deep state operative" seeking to discredit President Donald Trump's "humanitarian agenda." The findings were shared with the USAID's inspector general's office and State Department officials involved in Middle East policy, said two sources familiar with the matter, and come as dire food shortages deepen in the devastated enclave. Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas, which it blames for the crisis. The U.N. World Food Program says nearly a quarter of Gaza's 2.1 million Palestinians face famine-like conditions, thousands are suffering acute malnutrition, and the World Health Organization and doctors in the enclave report starvation deaths of children and others. The U.N. also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food supplies, the majority near the militarized distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the new private aid group that uses a for-profit U.S. logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and armed U.S. military veterans. The study was conducted by the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of USAID, which was the largest funder of assistance to Gaza before the Trump administration froze all U.S. foreign aid in January, terminating thousands of programs. It has also begun dismantling USAID, whose functions have been folded into the State Department. The analysis found that at least 44 of the 156 incidents where aid supplies were reported stolen or lost were 'either directly or indirectly' due to Israeli military actions, according to the briefing slides. Israel's military did not respond to questions about those findings. The study noted a limitation: because Palestinians who receive aid cannot be vetted, it was possible that U.S.-funded supplies went to administrative officials of Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza. One source familiar with the study also cautioned that the absence of reports of widespread aid diversion by Hamas 'does not mean that diversion has not occurred.' The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli assault began, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says Hamas diverts humanitarian aid Israel, which controls access to Gaza, has said that Hamas steals food supplies from U.N. and other organizations to use to control the civilian population and boost its finances, including by jacking up the prices of the goods and reselling them to civilians. Asked about the USAID report, the Israeli military told Reuters that its allegations are based on intelligence reports that Hamas militants seized cargoes by "both covertly and overtly" embedding themselves on aid trucks. Those reports also show that Hamas has diverted up to 25% of aid supplies to its fighters or sold them to civilians, the Israeli military said, adding that GHF has ended the militants' control of aid by distributing it directly to civilians. Hamas denies the allegations. A Hamas security official said that Israel has killed more than 800 Hamas-affiliated police and security guards trying to protect aid vehicles and convoy routes. Their missions were coordinated with the U.N. Reuters could not independently verify the claims by Hamas and Israel, which has not made public proof that the militants have systematically stolen aid. GHF also accuses Hamas of massive aid theft in defending its distribution model. The U.N. and other groups have rejected calls by GHF, Israel and the U.S. to cooperate with the foundation, saying it violates international humanitarian principles of neutrality. In response to a request for comment, GHF referred Reuters to a July 2 Washington Post article that quoted an unidentified Gazan and anonymous Israeli officials as saying Hamas profited from the sales and taxing of pilfered humanitarian aid. Aids groups required to report losses The 156 reports of theft or losses of supplies reviewed by BHA were filed by U.N. agencies and other humanitarian groups working in Gaza as a condition of receiving U.S. aid funds. The second source familiar with the matter said that after receiving reports of U.S.-funded aid thefts or losses, USAID staff followed up with partner organizations to try to determine if there was Hamas involvement. Those organizations also would "redirect or pause" aid distributions if they learned that Hamas was in the vicinity, the source said. Aid organizations working in Gaza also are required to vet their personnel, sub-contractors and suppliers for ties to extremist groups before receiving U.S. funds, a condition that the State Department waived in approving $30 million for GHF last month. The slide presentation noted that USAID partners tended to over-report aid diversion and theft by groups sanctioned or designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations - such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - because they want to avoid losing U.S. funding. Of the 156 incidents of loss or theft reported, 63 were attributed to unknown perpetrators, 35 to armed actors, 25 to unarmed people, 11 directly to Israeli military action, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, five to aid group personnel 'engaging in corrupt activities,' and six to 'others," a category that accounted for 'commodities stolen in unknown circumstances,' according to the slide presentation. The armed actors 'included gangs and other miscellaneous individuals who may have had weapons,' said a slide. Another slide said "a review of all 156 incidents found no affiliations with" U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, of which Hamas is one. 'The majority of incidents could not be definitively attributed to a specific actor,' said another slide. 'Partners often largely discovered the commodities had been stolen in transit without identifying the perpetrator.' It is possible there were classified intelligence reports on Hamas aid thefts, but BHA staff lost access to classified systems in the dismantlement of USAID, said a slide. However, a source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments told Reuters that they knew of no U.S. intelligence reports detailing Hamas aid diversions and that Washington was relying on Israeli reports. The BHA analysis found that the Israeli military 'directly or indirectly caused' a total of 44 incidents in which U.S.-funded aid was lost or stolen. Those included the 11 attributed to direct Israeli military actions, such as airstrikes or orders to Palestinians to evacuate areas of the war-torn enclave. Losses indirectly attributed to Israeli military included cases where they compelled aid groups to use delivery routes with high risks of theft or looting, ignoring requests for alternative routes, the analysis said. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Don Durfee and Claudia Parsons)

Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Israeli gunfire and strikes kill at least 25 in Gaza, many while seeking aid
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New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Terrified Druze Syrians speak out after deadly violence: ‘They just kill people everywhere'
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