Israel drives Syrian government forces out of Druze stronghold of Sweida

LeMonde

16-07-2025

The bodies of Osama and Ahmed Qtemish, two members of the General Security Service, the newly formed Syrian police force, lay on the ground under a blanket, their faces speckled with blood. Their young brother, who had also been injured in the ear, wept and refused to leave their bodies. He had already lost two other brothers, who had been tortured to death by Bashar al-Assad's regime in the notorious Saydnaya prison. On the morning of Tuesday, July 15, the police unit in which the Qtemish brothers served was targeted by an Israeli strike in the center of Sweida, a city in southern Syria where the majority of residents are from the Druze religious community.
"It's a massacre," said Dr. Ahmed al-Hor, one of only two doctors working at the improvised field hospital set up in a building in al-Mazra'a, a Druze village located on the western outskirts of the city of Sweida. "Since dawn, we've received more than 100 wounded and about 30 martyrs – soldiers and police officers, but also members of elite units. Most were targeted by strikes from Israeli drones and aircraft; others by Druze snipers and artillery," he said. On Tuesday evening, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported 248 dead, including 93 members of the government forces, since fighting broke out on Sunday between Druze factions and Bedouin fighters.
The government forces, who had entered Sweida on Tuesday morning, were caught off guard. A ceasefire had been announced by Syria's Defense Ministry at 8 am. An agreement had just been reached with the city's prominent Druze figures, providing for its defenders to surrender their weapons and allow government forces to deploy in Sweida, a city of 150,000 residents that had so far remained outside of Damascus's control. Yet influential Druze religious leader Hikmat al-Hijri condemned the agreement, accusing the government of violating it through the "indiscriminate bombardment" of "unarmed civilians." He also addressed Druze fighters, calling for "resisting this brutal campaign."