In Syria's Sweida, bodies wait to be identified at overwhelmed hospital
Clashes erupted on July 13 in Syria's Druze-majority province of Sweida between local fighters and Sunni Bedouin, spiralling and drawing in government forces, tribal allies of the Bedouin and the military of neighbouring Israel.
Witnesses, Druze factions and a monitor have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida last week.
More than 1,100 people, most of them Druze fighters and civilians, have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, whose toll also includes several hundred government security personnel.
Health authorities have not released a comprehensive death toll.
More than 450 bodies had been taken to Sweida's main hospital by Sunday evening, while bodies were still being collected from streets and homes in the city.
"The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital," said nurse Hisham Breik, who said he had not left the facility since the violence began.
"The situation has been terrible. We couldn't walk around the hospital without wearing a mask," he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly.
Medical personnel have been working in tough conditions at the hospital, which has seen clashes around it and has been flooded with wounded, some of whom were lying in the corridors.
Bodies have yet to be removed from villages in Sweida province's north and west, the hospital administration and health workers said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with "reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns".
Humanitarian access to Sweida "remains highly constrained", it said a statement late Sunday.
'Catastrophe'
The Sweida national hospital has remained open despite the dire situation that has also included supply shortages and water and power cuts.
A first Syrian Red Crescent convoy entered Sweida on Sunday carrying UN humanitarian assistance including food, water, medical supplies and fuel, OCHA said.
A Red Crescent official told AFP the supplies included body bags.
Another convoy facilitated by the Red Crescent was to leave Damascus on Monday, OCHA said.
But as the supplies were unloaded on Sunday, activist Moatasem Aflak, who works for a body affiliated with the Sweida health department, told AFP that the aid "doesn't cover everything required".
"We received water and medical supplies but we need more because we are facing a medical catastrophe," he said, adding that a list of requirements had been handed to the Red Crescent.
"We haven't yet been able to count the bodies" and some families have been unable to arrive to identify their loved ones, Aflak said.
"We are trying to cooperate with the Red Crescent to put the bodies in bags and establish a mass grave to transfer them to," he added.
According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
Second aid convoy heads to Suwayda after recent clashes
A convoy of 22 aid trucks was sent to the Syrian city of Suwayda on Wednesday, the second such convoy by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to be sent since clashes erupted between the Druze minority militiamen and Sunni Bedouin tribes backed by security forces. Wednesday's trucks contained 4,000 food baskets, 66 tonnes of flour, 10,000 bottles of drinking water and medical supplies, according to Syrian officials. The first aid convoy entered the city on Sunday. Violence between the Druze militia and Sunni Muslim clans has resulted in the deaths of hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria's already fragile post-war transition. The clashes also led to a series of targeted attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins. The UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said more than 130,000 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of attacks a week ago. Israel also launched dozens of air strikes on the Druze-majority Suwayda province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins. The violence has largely stopped as a ceasefire appears to be holding. Shortage of supplies The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Mohammed Hazem Baqleh, said the situation in Suwayda remains grim, particularly in the main hospital, where some 300 bodies piled up during the clashes. The city had been almost entirely cut off from supplies during the two-week fighting. A Red Crescent team worked with the hospital's forensics to document the dead and prepare them for burial, he said. Baqleh said that with electricity and water largely cut off during the fighting, "there is a significant shortage of materials and a shortage of human resources" in the hospital. "The markets, in general, were closed and services have almost completely stopped" during the fighting, he said. The group was registering names of civilians who want to leave the city to give them safe passage out, he said. During the fighting, Red Crescent teams came under attack. One of their vehicles was shot at, and a warehouse burned down after being hit by shelling, he said. Families evacuated Evacuations of Bedouin families from Druze-majority areas has already begun. Syrian state media on Sunday said the government had coordinated with officials in Suwayda to bring buses to evacuate some 1,500 Bedouins. Many of them are now staying in crowded shelters in neighbouring Daraa province. Some worried that the displacement for those who leave will become permanent, a familiar scenario from the days of Syria's civil war. Human Rights Watch said in a statement Tuesday that "while officials have said the relocation is temporary, concerns remain that these families may be unable to safely return without clear guarantees." Suwayda's provincial governor, Mustafa al-Bakour, reiterated promises that the displacement will not be long term. "There can be no permanent displacement in Syria," he said. "Nobody will accept to leave the house his lives in and was raised in, except as a temporary solution until things calm down." Human Rights Watch said that all parties in the conflict had reportedly committed "serious abuses" and that the violence had also "ignited sectarian hate speech and the risk of reprisals against Druze communities across the country."
France 24
4 days ago
- France 24
In Syria's Sweida, bodies wait to be identified at overwhelmed hospital
"We have handed 361 bodies over to family members, but we still have 97 unidentified corpses," a forensic medicine official at facility said on condition of anonymity. Clashes erupted on July 13 in Syria's Druze-majority province of Sweida between local fighters and Sunni Bedouin, spiralling and drawing in government forces, tribal allies of the Bedouin and the military of neighbouring Israel. Witnesses, Druze factions and a monitor have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida last week. More than 1,100 people, most of them Druze fighters and civilians, have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, whose toll also includes several hundred government security personnel. Health authorities have not released a comprehensive death toll. More than 450 bodies had been taken to Sweida's main hospital by Sunday evening, while bodies were still being collected from streets and homes in the city. "The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital," said nurse Hisham Breik, who said he had not left the facility since the violence began. "The situation has been terrible. We couldn't walk around the hospital without wearing a mask," he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly. Medical personnel have been working in tough conditions at the hospital, which has seen clashes around it and has been flooded with wounded, some of whom were lying in the corridors. Bodies have yet to be removed from villages in Sweida province's north and west, the hospital administration and health workers said. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with "reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns". Humanitarian access to Sweida "remains highly constrained", it said a statement late Sunday. 'Catastrophe' The Sweida national hospital has remained open despite the dire situation that has also included supply shortages and water and power cuts. A first Syrian Red Crescent convoy entered Sweida on Sunday carrying UN humanitarian assistance including food, water, medical supplies and fuel, OCHA said. A Red Crescent official told AFP the supplies included body bags. Another convoy facilitated by the Red Crescent was to leave Damascus on Monday, OCHA said. But as the supplies were unloaded on Sunday, activist Moatasem Aflak, who works for a body affiliated with the Sweida health department, told AFP that the aid "doesn't cover everything required". "We received water and medical supplies but we need more because we are facing a medical catastrophe," he said, adding that a list of requirements had been handed to the Red Crescent. "We haven't yet been able to count the bodies" and some families have been unable to arrive to identify their loved ones, Aflak said. "We are trying to cooperate with the Red Crescent to put the bodies in bags and establish a mass grave to transfer them to," he added. According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.
France 24
7 days ago
- France 24
'Mass grave': Medics appeal for aid at last working hospital in Syria's Sweida
"It's not a hospital anymore, it's a mass grave," said Rouba, a member of the medical staff at the city's sole government hospital, weeping as she appealed for aid. Dr Omar Obeid, who heads the Sweida division at Syria's Order of Physicians, said the facility has received "more than 400 bodies since Monday morning", including women, children and the elderly. "There's no more space in the morgue, the bodies are out on the street" in front of the hospital, he continued. Fighting erupted Sunday night between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes before Syrian government forces intervened on Tuesday with the stated intention of quelling the violence. But in the subsequent events, those government forces were accused of grave abuses against the minority, according to rights organisations, witnesses and Druze groups. The government forces withdrew from the city on Thursday following threats from Israel, which has vowed to protect the Druze. In the hospital on Friday, corridors were engulfed by the stench of the dead bodies, which had bloated beyond recognition, an AFP correspondent said. Visibly overwhelmed, the handful of medical personnel remaining at the facility nonetheless rushed to do their best to offer care to the seemingly endless stream of wounded, many of them waiting in the hallways. "There are only nine doctors and medical staff left, and they are working nonstop," said Rouba, who preferred not to give her full name. 'No water, no electricity' "The situation is very bad, we have no water and no electricity, medicines are starting to run out," Rouba continued. "There are people who have been at home for three days and we can't manage to rescue them," she said. "The bodies are on the streets and no one can go out to get them. Yesterday, five big cars filled with bodies arrived at the hospital. "There are women, children, people whose identities are unknown, cut-off arms or legs." The United Nations on Friday urged an end to the bloodshed, demanding "independent, prompt and transparent investigations into all violations". According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the violence has claimed the lives of nearly 600 people since Sunday. Omar Obeid told AFP that three of his colleagues were killed, including one who was "shot dead in his house, in front of his family". Another was killed at point-blank range in her car as she drove through a security checkpoint, he said. The third, "surgeon Talaat Amer was killed while he was at the hospital on Tuesday in a blue surgical gown to perform his duty", Obeid said. © 2025 AFP
