Israel strikes Syrian capital, sending warning to government
Assad was a loyal ally of Iran and a sworn enemy of Israel. But the rebels who ousted him have opened contacts with Israel in recent months, mediated by the United States, in a bid to lower cross-border tensions.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement Wednesday, described the violence as 'a direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria,' adding that Washington was in talks with both Israel and Syria on the issue.
The clashes in recent days marked Sweida's deadliest spell of unrest in recent memory. More than 200 people have been killed in four days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain.
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Electricity and internet outages are widespread. Hospitals are facing shortages in medical supplies. Many civilians are unable to flee and sheltering at home.
The fighting in Sweida erupted Sunday after armed members of a Bedouin tribe attacked and robbed a Druze man along a main highway, the observatory said. As the unrest escalated, al-Sharaa's government deployed its military forces to the province Monday to quell the conflict, Syrian officials said.
But given deep-seated mistrust of the new government, some members of Druze militias in Sweida thought that the government forces were coming to aid the Bedouins and to attack the Druze, according to Druze militia leaders.
A cease-fire announced Tuesday broke down, and clashes erupted again Wednesday between Syrian government forces and Druze fighters in Sweida.
The latest flare-up of unrest in Syria underscored the deep challenges Damascus faces in trying to reassert authority across a country still fractured by a complex web of armed groups left over from the nearly 14-year civil war.
Despite assurances from Syria's new leadership, many of the country's religious and ethnic minorities remain skeptical of al-Sharaa, who once led a rebel group that pledged fealty to Al Qaeda.
The Israeli airstrikes in the capital Wednesday caused 'extensive' damage in the heart of Damascus, according to the observatory, sending thick plumes of smoke rising above the skyline. At least one civilian was killed and 18 were injured, according to Syria's Health Ministry.
Syrians described scenes of chaos as Israeli fighter jets pierced the capital's sky, raining down missiles as workers sat at their desks or commuted.
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'We were inside the ministry when the first airstrike hit,' said Abu Musab, 30, an employee at the Defense Ministry. 'Then a second strike followed. Later, the aircraft came back and carried out four strikes in a row,' he added.
'There are still people trapped under the rubble,' he said.
The Israeli military attacked the Syrian military's general staff compound where it said Syrian commanders were directing government forces in Sweida. The Defense Ministry is housed in the same complex.
Israeli strikes also targeted an area near the presidential palace in Damascus, the president's seat of power, the military said.
Israel also struck near the Damascus palace in May during a previous bout of sectarian violence involving the Syrian Druze.
An Israeli military official told reporters that Israel was conducting dozens of airstrikes against Syrian forces in Sweida — including targeting Syrian soldiers. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comply with military protocol, said Israel was acting to prevent a buildup of hostile forces near its borders, as well as to prevent attacks on Druze civilians.
Shortly after the Israeli airstrikes on Damascus, Syrian authorities announced that a new cease-fire had been reached in Sweida.
The agreement, which the country's Interior Ministry said had been brokered with local leaders in Sweida, called for an 'immediate and comprehensive cessation of all military operations,' the reestablishment of state authority in the area and the integration of the region into the Syrian state.
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'We're talking about major countries and major Israeli allies,' said Alon Pinkas, an Israeli political analyst and former consul general in New York. 'They're isolating the U.S. and they're leaving Israel dependent — not on the U.S., but on the whims and erratic behavior of one person, Trump.' Recognition could also strengthen moves to prevent annexation, said Hugh Lovatt, an expert on the conflict at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The challenge, he said, 'is for those recognizing countries to match their recognition with other steps, practical steps.' It could also prove significant if Israel and the Palestinians ever resume the long-dormant peace process, which ground to a halt after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in 2009. 'If and when some kind of negotiations do resume, probably not in the immediate future, but at some point, it puts Palestine on much more equal footing,' said Julie Norman, a professor of Middle East politics at University College London. 'It has statehood as a starting point for those negotiations, rather than a certainly-not-assured endpoint.' Israel calls it a reward for violence Israel's government and most of its political class were opposed to Palestinian statehood long before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack triggered the war. Advertisement Netanyahu says creating a Palestinian state would reward Hamas and eventually lead to an even larger Hamas-run state on Israel's borders. Hamas leaders have at times suggested they would accept a state on the 1967 borders but the group remains formally committed to Israel's destruction. Western countries envision a future Palestinian state that would be democratic but also led by political rivals of Hamas who accept Israel and help it suppress the militant group, which won parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized power in Gaza the following year. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank, supports a two-state solution and cooperates with Israel on security matters. He has made a series of concessions in recent months, including announcing the end to the Palestinian Authority's practice of providing stipends to the families of prisoners held by Israel and slain militants. Such measures, along with the security coordination, have made it deeply unpopular with Palestinians, and have yet to earn it any favors from Israel or the Trump administration. Israel says Abbas is not sincerely committed to peace and accuses him of tolerating incitement and militancy. Lovatt says there is much to criticize about the PA, but that 'often the failings of the Palestinian leadership are exaggerated in a way to relieve Israel of its own obligations.' The tide may be turning, but not fast enough If you had told Palestinians in September 2023 that major countries were on the verge of recognizing a state, that the U.N.'s highest court had ordered Israel to end the occupation, that the International Criminal Court had ordered Netanyahu's arrest, and that prominent voices from across the U.S. political spectrum were furious with Israel, they might have thought their dream of statehood was at hand. Advertisement But those developments pale in comparison to the ongoing war in Gaza and smaller but similarly destructive military offensives in the West Bank. Israel's military victories over Iran and its allies have left it the dominant and nearly unchallenged military power in the region, and Trump is the strongest supporter it has ever had in the White House. 'This (Israeli) government is not going to change policy,' Pinkas said. 'The recognition issue, the ending of the war, humanitarian aid — that's all going to have to wait for another government.' Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed.
