Israel sends second aid shipment to Druze in Syria's Suwayda
On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered a second humanitarian aid shipment to Druze communities in Syria's Suwayda province, citing "worsening conditions" on the ground.
Valued at 2 million NIS, the package includes food parcels, medical equipment, first-aid kits, and essential medicines. Saar said the aid is directed at areas hit hardest by recent violence and aims to "ease urgent humanitarian pressures."
This marks the second such delivery during Saar's tenure, following a similar shipment in March.
Israel delivers urgent humanitarian aid to the Druze in Sweida following recent attacks. The 2 million NIS package includes food, medical supplies & medicines. This is the second such delivery this year, per FM Gideon Sa'ar.📸: Idan Media, GPO pic.twitter.com/AgbjS32xpm
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) July 31, 2025
Suwayda has faced mounting unrest in recent months, with recurring protests and armed clashes, the latest leaving 1,300 dead.
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Following Damascus Church Bombing, Syrian Christians Slam Ahmad Al-Sharaa Regime: It Allows Extremism To Spread In Society; Syria's Christians Need Protection
Since the Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) organization, headed by Ahmed Al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani), took over Syria on December 8, 2024, Syria's Christians and other minority groups in the country have felt a growing sense of concern. Their fear is due to the jihadist past of the HTS organization and to the fact that many of its members are extremist foreign activists identified with the Salafi-jihadi current of Islam.[1] The new regime has made a point of emphasizing that Syria under its rule will uphold freedom of religion and respect all the religious and ethnic groups in the country; this was also stated in the Constitutional Declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic, ratified on March 13, 2025, which serves as a constitution for the five-year transition period.[2] But in practice, there has been a conspicuous surge in incidents of harassment against minority groups, which on some occasions escalated into fierce violence. The new regime, for its part, presented the incidents as "isolated" and did not hold the perpetrators to account, which allowed the phenomenon to continue and in fact to intensify. The first to suffer this violence were the Alawite communities on the Syrian coast. In March 2025, security forces of the HTS government, and Syrian riffraff, carried out brutal acts of violence against them, murdering hundreds of civilians, destroying property and humiliating Alawites in public.[3] In late April incitement against the Druze minority began as well, leading to armed action against them in the Damascus area and in the south of the country. According to some heads of the Druze community and commanders of Druze armed factions, members of the Syrian security forces were involved in the violence.[4] In mid-July the violence against the Druze resurged. Clashes between the Druze population and Beduine tribes in the Druze-majority Al-Suwayda province were used by the regime as an opportunity to send military forces to the province, and there were many documented incidents of these forces torching homes, destroying property, and robbing and humiliating civilians. Dozens of Druze civilians have been killed in these events.[5] In June the violence against Christians resurged as well. On June 22, a suicide bombing and shooting at the Mar Elias Church in Dweila'a. a Christian-majority neighborhood of Damascus, left 27 people dead and dozens wounded.[6] The attack on the church sparked intense criticism in Syria against the regime, including from Christian clerics and Christians on social media. They accused the regime of laying the groundwork for violence by ignoring the spread of religious extremism in society and by preserving the extremist ideology of HTS. The clerics also condemned the fact that no government official – except for the single Christian minister, Hind Kabawat – bothered to visit the church after the bombing, as well as the fact that government officials, including Al-Sharaa himself, refrained from referring to the victims as "martyrs," a term they reserve for Muslims. Christian Syrian writer Bassel KasNasrallah, who formerly served as an advisor to Syria's Mufti, noted in a June 23 article that the bombing has reignited the fear felt by Christians in Arab countries about the extremist Islamist discourse that does not regard them as part of society and even wants to purge them from society. Even before the bombing, in March 2025, KasNasrallah warned that Syria's Christians were concerned for their future and that many were thinking of leaving the country.[7] The Damascus church bombing was in fact the worst in a series of violent incidents against Christians in Syria under the HTS regime. During Christmas 2024, only two weeks after this regime came to power, foreign fighters torched a Christmas tree in the Christian town of Al-Suqaylabiyah in the Hama governorate, and Christian facilities were attacked in other parts of the country.[8] In addition, on several occasions Muslim preachers, some of them armed, entered Christian neighborhoods, including Dweila'a, and called on the residents to convert to Islam. They handed out pamphlets advocating the Islamic dress code for women, the segregation of the sexes and the prohibition of alcohol and of singing.[9] In May 2025 notices were hung on the wall of a church in Tartous calling on Christians to convert to Islam or else pay the jizya (poll tax), and proclaiming that Islam is the one true religion while all others are false.[10] The Damascus church in the aftermath of the bombing (Image: June 23, 2025) This report presents the criticism voiced in Syria against the regime, especially by Christians, following the Damascus church bombing, as well as articles expressing the Christians' fear for their future in the country. Christian Clerics: It Is The Regime's Negligence That Led To The Bombing The bombing at the Mar Elias Church was a sore blow to the new Syrian government, which since coming to power has tried to present itself as a protector of the minorities, including the Christians, as part of its efforts to gain Western support. Accordingly, the Syrian Interior Ministry hurried to announce that ISIS was behind the bombing,[11] although this organization has not claimed responsibility for it. On June 24, 2025 a jihadist organization, Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna, claimed the bombing,[12] but, according to assessments in the Arab press, this was only an attempt to gain support and attract recruits from extremist Sunni circles. Following the bombing, Syrian Christians, as well as others, condemned the regime and questioned its ability to protect them. For example, at a funeral of victims of the bombing, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John X Yazigi, who is considered to be the most senior Christian cleric in Syria, addressed President Al-Sharaa, saying: "Mr. President, we were highly dismayed to see that no government official other than the Christian [minister] Hind Kabawat came to visit the site of the crime… Your phone call… expressing your condolences was not enough. We thank you for this call, but the crime that had been committed merited more than that." The Patriarch added: "We want to know who was behind this shameful act… but we [also] wish to stress that the government bears full responsibility [for it]." He also condemned several Syrian officials that had referred to the victims as "fatalities" rather than "martyrs," saying: "These martyrs are not 'fatalities,' as some Syrian officials have called them, nor are they 'casualties' – they are martyrs. I even dare to call them martyrs of the faith and the homeland."[13] Father Melatios Shatahi, the priest serving at the Mar Elias Church, told Syrian media outlets that the church had informed the security forces about anti-Christian incidents, but the latter always dismissed them as "acts by individuals." "Today proves that these were not [acts by] individuals, but the result of negligence by the authorities and failure to hold anyone to account," he said.[14] Christian clerics pay their respects to the bombing victims (Image: Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, June 25, 2025). Christian Syrians On Social Media: The Government Backs Extremists And Allows Them To Act Like the Christian clerics, Syrian Christians on social media expressed fear following the bombing and accused the Syrian regime of laying the groundwork for it. A post on the Facebook page "Christians at Home and Abroad," which frequently criticizes the new Syrian regime, read: "Don't be surprised at a church bombing in a 'state' where ISIS flags hang in the marketplaces, security officers wear the ISIS symbol, the army is sectarian [i.e., comprised of only one sect, the Sunnis], [members of] minorities are fired from their jobs, non-Sunnis are banished, provocations and the destruction of religious sites belonging to minorities continue on a daily basis, the perpetrators of previous massacres are ignored, and people are kidnapped and murdered every day yet no one is held accountable. This is a hijacked country ruled by a gang of takfiris [i.e., Muslims who accuse other Muslims of apostacy]. It must be liberated from these extremist groups."[15] Syrian writer Anas Hamdoun stated that the Syrian regime has allowed extremist Islamist ideas to permeate society and has thus created a climate conducive to harming minorities: "As expected, the regime hastened to attribute the attack to ISIS in an attempt to rebrand itself as a 'savior and protector.' But as a Syrian citizen I am not satisfied with this claim. The government's statement that it is 'combatting terror' is not enough, given that it itself, along the course of its history, has moved from the embrace of one terrorist organization to the next and from loyalty to a bloodstained takfiri ideology to security dependency on regional and international [forces] – without supplying any [proof], to this day, that it has really broken away from its ideological heritage… On the contrary, we see the Salafist jihadi ideology steadily gaining dominance in Syrian society, not just in [extremist] organizations but as a general approach cultivated by the regime itself… The regime still behaves as though consenting to the presence of churches and minorities is an act of charity and a generous [favor] it is doing to society… "Today it is necessary to hold accountable not only whoever attacked the Mar Elias Church but also whoever laid the conceptual groundwork for it and whoever adopted this discourse, promoted it and allowed it to permeate society. The time has come to disconnect not only from ISIS but from everyone who espouses its ideology. The [Syrian] regime must stop presenting itself as a victim, or as the protector [of the minorities], when [in practice] it nurtures [extremist ideology]…"[16] Syrian Christian diplomat Bassam Hanna, who often covers the situation in Syria on social media and has millions of followers, wrote that, after the attack on the Mar Elias Church, he wrote to U.S. President Trump to inform him about the persecution of the Christians in Syria and the violations perpetrated against them, and asked him to help protect them.[17] A Christmas tree was set alight in the Syrian city of Al-Suqaylabiyah in the Hama Governorate in December 2024 (Image: December 23, 2024) Syrian Christian Writer: Eastern Christians Fear Extremist Islam, Which Is Spreading In an article he published after the church bombing, Bassel KasNasrallah, a Syrian Christian who frequently writes about the state of the Christians in Syria, noted that the attack had reawakened the concern of the Christians in Arab countries regarding the extremist Islamist discourse that does not view them as part of society. He wrote: "The Mar Elias Church in the Dweila'a neighborhood in Damascus has been attacked, [and] this was [ostensibly just] a terrorist attack on a stone [building] and on whoever was praying inside it. But in actuality it reopens old wounds that have never healed and reawakens the hidden concern in the heart of the Christians, who have lived in the East for hundreds of years, not as guests or foreigners but as an authentic part of its [social] fabric. "The Christian [who lives] in societies with a Muslim majority understands that 'democracy' is the rule of the majority, and that he is therefore in a vulnerable position, likely to lose cultural or essential gains under pressure from the extremist religious discourse which sees him as 'the other' who must be restricted and perhaps even 'purged.' This Christian fear is nothing new. It has built up over the course of history, from [the time of] the Ottoman massacres and the scenes of slaughter and persecution in several regions, and ever since the voice of Islamist extremism, which accuses everyone who is different of heresy, become louder… "The greatest danger is that extremism is no longer [just] individual, but has become a conceptual system [that motivated] those who carry bombs and explosive belts. The problem doesn't lie with the person who blew up the Mar Elias Church, but with the one who taught him that the blood of the [Christian] worshippers may be spilled, while presenting this under the slogan of 'Islamic victory'... "Yes, the Eastern Christian is afraid. But he does not fear the Muslim [himself] but the Islamic ignorance, the false Islam, the Islam that has been hijacked by the ignorant to establish a regime that excludes anyone who is different. This is the fear that drives [the Christians] to retreat [into their communities] or to emigrate abroad, never to return… "Fear is not dealt with through [media] carnivals but through education, learning, true religious dialogue, conscious communication and social justice, by amending our [attitude] to poverty and exclusion and through the participation of Christians as citizens rather than guests in the homeland. The war on terrorism is not waged only by repressing it, but by drying up its sources and dealing with the poor areas that breed hatred. An extremist is not born an extremist' [extremism] is created by environments of ignorance, unemployment and exclusion… The Eastern Christians will remain [in Syria], but we want security, not slogans… We want to live together in the light of Allah, not in the darkness of those who claim to be His helpers…"[18] Notice urging Christians to convert to Islam that was hung on a church in the Syrian city of Tartous in May 2025 (Image: May 20, 2025) The New Regime's Harassment Of Minorities Spurs Christians To Emigrate; The Christian Presence In Syria Must Be Safeguarded KasNasrallah expressed the Syrian Christians' fear of attacks against them even before the Mar Elias bombing. In a March 2025 article, against the backdrop of the massacres perpetrated by Syrian regime forces against Alawites on the Syrian coast, he noted that many Syrian Christians were considering leaving the country. He wrote: "Despite the reassurances from several factions of the [former Syrian] opposition, which claimed that the Christians are not a target for attack, the fears still exist, especially given the growing influence of the extremist organizations and the alarming reports coming from here and there, the most recent of which was [the report] about the 'security collapse' that led to violations of the law and to bloodshed on the [Syrian] coast… "The absence of security and political stability has led to increased emigration, and threatens the loss of the religious-cultural diversity that has characterized Syria throughout its history. These circumstances cause the Christians to fear for their future there… This fear, alongside the media hubbub, the provocative discourse and the sectarian incitement, cause all the minorities, and the Christians among them, to constantly feel afraid and to think again and again of emigrating. This is what is happening now, if we ignore the pretty words and the [media] carnivals of reassurances [by the regime]. There is a large group of people with weapons and extremist views that has already erupted once on the Syrian coast, and we don't know when it might erupt again – once or several times – with complete impunity. 'In conclusion, the Christian presence in Syria must be preserved through a joint effort by all elements, so as to ensure [the Christians'] rights and safety from danger and establish a country that respects religious and cultural diversity and guarantees a life of dignity and security to its citizens.' [19] * O. Peri is a research fellow at MEMRI.
