Syria's Hospital in Sweida a ‘Mass Grave'

Asharq Al-Awsat

19-07-2025

In the last barely-functional hospital in Sweida, bodies are overflowing from the morgue, staff said, amid violence that has wracked the Druze-majority southern Syrian city for nearly a week.
'It's not a hospital anymore, it's a mass grave,' Rouba, a member of the medical staff at the city's sole government hospital, told AFP, 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 told AFP.
Fighting erupted Sunday night between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes before Syrian government forces intervened on Monday with the stated intention of quelling the violence.
The government forces withdrew from the city on Thursday following Israeli airstrikes on southern Syria and the capital, Damascus.
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.
'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,' Rouba added. '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.'