Israel strikes Damascus hard in support of the Druze
Israel said the strikes were meant to protect the Druze, a Syrian Arab minority, and to force President Ahmad Sharaa to withdraw his forces from the southern city of Sweida, where clashes involving Druze armed groups, Bedouin gunmen and government forces have been raging for days.
Israeli Air Force jets, which first fired four warning missiles, bombed the headquarters of the Syrian Defense Ministry and General Staff in the Umayyad Square in Damascus, scoring direct hits and sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.
The targeted building was badly damaged, while police forces blocked the roads leading to the square.
The Syrian Health Ministry confirmed the death and injuries.
Another Israeli strike targeted the surroundings of the Presidential People's Palace, Sharaa's official residence in Damascus.
The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights said 248 people were killed since Sunday when the clashes broke out in Sweida. The U.K.-based organization said "massacres and executions" committed by the regime's security forces were documented.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Wednesday that his country would escalate its level of attacks on the Syrian regime if they do not soon withdraw from the Druze-dominant region.
"The painful blows have begun," Katz said in a post on X after the strike on the General Staff building in Damascus.
Israeli media also quoted him as saying that Israel will not abandon the Druze and will not allow the Syrian regime to " harm and massacre them." Katz warned that Israel will escalate its attacks if the regime forces failed to withdraw.
The Sweida clashes, which started between the Druze and Bedouin Sunni tribes, prompted the regime to send forces to restore order and impose its control on the region.
The Jerusalem Post website quoted Israeli Army sources as saying that "the military was ready for a multi-day campaign to convince" the Syrian regime to pull out its forces from the area and "leave the Syrian-Druze their autonomy."
It said that while the army will continue to bomb Syrian regime forces "to show them the cost of their military actions," it made it clear that it will not send troops there.
The army also deployed additional forces along the Syrian border and used tear gas and firing into the air to prevent Israeli Druze protestors from crossing the border.
Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israel's Druze community, denounced the "brutal massacre" of innocent civilians by Sharaa's forces, criticized Israel's response as "insufficient despite promises of protection" and called for immediate and decisive military action.
"This is not a clash between Druze and Bedouins, it's between the Druze and ISIS," he said in an interview.
Shortly after the Israeli strikes, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced that a cease-fire agreement has been reached, including "the deployment of security checkpoints inside Sweida and the full reintegration of the province into the Syrian state."
The official Syrian news agency, SANA, said the accord included an immediate cessation of all military operations, the formation of a monitoring committee to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire and the deployment of internal security and police checkpoints.
It also called for the immediate release of detainees, an agreement on a mechanism to regulate heavy weapons, the full reintegration of Sweida into the Syrian state and the formation of a joint fact-finding committee to investigate crimes, violations and abuses that occurred during the clashes.
According to the accord, those who will manage security control in the area will be the Druze residents of the province.
The Interior Ministry said the agreement was an important step toward rebuilding trust between the people of Sweida and the Syrian state.
"Our goal is for Syria to remain united, strong and safe for all its citizens, including our people in Sweida, who will always remain an essential part of this beloved homeland," the ministry said.
The cease-fire agreement, which was also announced by a Druze religious leader in a video message, was the second in two days.
The first truce accord was rejected by Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajiri, another Druze religious leader, who called for continuing fighting the government forces.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Israel's attacks on Damascus hinder chemical weapons search, Syrian official says
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes on Damascus are hampering Syria's efforts to find and destroy chemical weapons stockpiled during the rule of toppled ruler Bashar al-Assad, a government adviser said on Thursday. A planned visit by inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has already had to be postponed, adviser Ibrahim Olabi said. The OPCW will hold an urgent meeting on Tuesday next week to discuss the situation and impact of the Israeli attacks, Olabi, who is the legal adviser to Syria's Foreign Ministry tasked with the chemical weapons file, said. The OPCW did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Israel launched powerful airstrikes on Damascus on Wednesday, blowing up part of the defence ministry and hitting near the presidential palace, taking action it said was to protect the Druze minority in southern Syria. The Syrian defence ministry provided the institutional infrastructure needed to organise and secure visits from OPCW inspectors, Olabi said. Since March there have been several visits by inspectors to previously unseen production and storage locations for chemical weapons to prepare for the task of destroying remnants of Assad's illegal stockpile. Syria's interim-government has vowed to rid itself of chemical weapons. The OPCW, a treaty-based agency in The Hague with 193 member countries, is tasked with implementing the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Strike on Gaza's only Catholic church injures several people
A strike on Gaza's only Catholic church injured several people on Thursday, the territory's civil defence agency and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Italy's prime minister slammed "unacceptable" Israeli attacks on civilians. The raid came as Gaza's civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes killed 18 people across the Palestinian territory on Thursday. "The Holy Family Church in Gaza has been struck by a raid this morning. There are several injuries in the place including the Parish Priest, Fr. Gabriel Romanelli," Jerusalem's Latin Patriarchate said in a statement. It added that no fatalities had been confirmed but that the church had sustained damage. Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a strike on the Catholic church resulted in injuries, including the priest. The Israeli military said it was "looking into it" when contacted by AFP. - 'Serious act' - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that "Israeli strikes on Gaza have also hit the Holy Family Church", a parish in Gaza City with which the late Pope Francis had regular contact throughout the war. "The attacks against the civilian population carried out by Israel for months are unacceptable," Meloni said in a post on X. "No military action can justify such behaviour." Out of the Gaza Strip's population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory. Since the early days of the war which erupted in October 2023, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at the Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, and some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge there. Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war. In his final Easter message, a day before his death on April 21, he condemned the "deplorable humanitarian situation" in the Palestinian territory. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Thursday denounced "a serious act against a Christian place of worship". "I offer my sincere condolences to Father Romanelli, who was wounded in the raid," he posted on X. - 'Totally unacceptable' - Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of Catholic charity l'Oeuvre d'Orient, told AFP the raid was "totally unacceptable". "It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker. These are people who are at the service of the population," he said. "There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians. This is totally unacceptable and we condemn in the strongest possible terms this attitude on the part of Israel." More than 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza's population, displacing most residents at least once and triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials. The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. burs-acc/phz/ysm Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Syrian leader pledges security for all, slams Israeli strikes on Damascus
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa says protecting the country's Druze citizens and their rights is a priority as he announces that local leaders will take control of security in the city of Suwayda in a bid to end sectarian violence in the south and in the wake of deadly Israeli strikes in Damascus. In a televised speech on Thursday, the Syrian leader addressed days of fierce fighting involving Druze armed groups, Bedouin tribes and government forces in the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda. Israel, which sees the Druze as allies, launched a series of strikes near Syria's presidential palace and on the military headquarters in the heart of Damascus on Wednesday, warning Syria it would escalate its attacks further if government forces did not withdraw from the south and halt attacks against the Druze community. 'We are eager on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people because they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,' al-Sharaa said in the speech, describing the minority as 'a fundamental part of the fabric of this nation'. 'We affirm that protecting your rights and freedoms is among our top priorities,' he said. 'We reject any attempt, foreign or domestic, to sow division within our ranks.' Al-Sharaa said 'responsibility' for security in the violence-plagued area would be handed over to religious elders and some local factions 'based on the supreme national interest'. At least 169 people have been killed in the violence in southern Syria in recent days, local sources told Al Jazeera, while the United Kingdom-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 360 people have been killed. Troops withdraw Al-Sharaa's remarks came after the Syrian government and Druze leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou announced a new ceasefire in the city and said the army had begun withdrawing from Suwayda. Dozens of Syrian military vehicles were seen leaving the city overnight. Reporting from Suwayda, Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr said 'a tense calm' had settled on the city on Thursday morning. 'Whether or not it will hold, we have to wait and see,' she said. She said the Druze community, a small but influential minority in both Syria and Israel, was 'divided' over its stance towards the new Syrian authorities, who took over after the fall of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December. Jarbou, who said he agreed to the ceasefire, condemned the Israeli strikes on Syria, telling Al Jazeera Arabic that 'any attack on the Syrian state is an attack on the Druze community.' But another influential Druze leader in the city, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari, said he rejected the ceasefire and promised to continue fighting until Suwayda was 'entirely liberated'. Khodr said al-Hajari's whereabouts were unknown, and it was unclear whether fighters affiliated with him would 'continue to put up a fight'.'Israeli entity has targeted our stability and sowed discord' In his speech, al-Sharaa called for national unity, saying: 'The building of a new Syria requires all of us to stand united behind our state, to commit to its principles and to place the interest of the nation above any personal or limited interest.' Addressing the Druze community, he said the government rejected 'any attempt to drag you into the hands of an external party', in a pointed reference to Israel's deadly intervention in the conflict. 'The Israeli entity, which has consistently targeted our stability and sowed discord since the fall of the former regime, now seeks once again to turn our sacred land into a theatre of endless chaos,' he said. 'We are not among those who fear the war. We have spent our lives facing challenges and defending our people, but we have put the interests of the Syrians before chaos and destruction.' He added that Israel's strikes, including those that killed three people and injured 34 in Damascus on Wednesday, could have pushed 'matters to a large-scale escalation if it were not for the intervention of US, Turkish and Arab mediators, 'which saved the region from an unknown fate'.The United States, which has softened its stance towards Syria and is trying to re-engage and support the country's reconstruction after more than 13 years of war, has been eager to de-escalate the conflict, which Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce called 'a misunderstanding between new neighbours'. The US called on Syria on Wednesday to withdraw its troops from the southern border area to de-escalate tensions. Actions 'louder than words' Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mohamad Elmasry, professor of media studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said al-Sharaa's speech contained encouraging messages about the place of the Druze minority in Syrian society. 'He said that the Druze are an essential component,' Elmasry said. 'He said it's the Syrian government's responsibility to protect them and to hold to account those who have transgressed against them in recent days.' But he said it would all come down to how his government behaved in the aftermath of the speech. 'I think their actions will speak louder than words for those minority groups in Syria.' He said the speech also contained a note of warning to Israel that al-Sharaa's government did not fear war and that 'anyone who starts a war with Syria … would regret it.' 'These were messages directed at Israel, and it marked a very significant departure from what we've heard from him and at times not heard from him when Israel has attacked Syria,' Elmasry said. 'I think we're at a potentially dangerous tipping point, and it really will come down to, I think, the extent to which [President] Donald Trump and the United States are willing to kind of rein in Israel,' he said. 'It's a very difficult situation in Syria. You are talking about a very multiethnic society. You have outside forces, starting with Israel, trying to basically fragment the country and establish a separatist system, if you will, in Syria,' Elmasry said. Cycle of violence The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between Druze armed factions and local Sunni Bedouin tribes in Suwayda province. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze, and Syrian soldiers were reported to have committed abuses, according to local monitors and analysts. The actions committed by members of the security forces – acknowledged as 'unlawful criminal acts' by the Syrian presidency – have given Israel a pretext to bombard Syria as it builds military bases in the Golan Heights in the demilitarised buffer zone with Syria on land seized by its forces. Fighting previously broke out between government troops and Druze fighters in April and May, killing dozens of people. Local leaders and religious figures responded by signing agreements to contain the escalation and better integrate Druze fighters into the new Syrian administration. The Druze developed their own militias during the Syrian war. Since al-Assad's fall, Druze factions have been operating with a degree of autonomy in Suwayda and its surrounding areas, Khodr said. Israel has been trying to expand its control in southern Syria since al-Assad's fall and has repeatedly bombed the country this year. During the fighting in Suwayda, Israel demanded the Syrian troop withdrawal to create a demilitarised zone in southern Syria and has been moving its ground forces deeper into the Golan the daily Crossword
