Hope of a new era for Syria shattered as sectarian conflict continues in southern city of Sweida

Irish Independent

23-07-2025

Fighting has engulfed Sweida, a southern city with a majority Druze population. Neighbouring Israel, facing pressure from its own Druze population, has taken a violent stand. Missiles have rained down on government forces in Sweida and in central Damascus.
In this whirl of shrapnel and shelling, hopes for a new era of peace in a nation long torn apart by dictatorship and a 14-year civil war are quickly fading. Instead, Syria appears on the brink of being dragged into yet another civil and international conflict.
'Eighty per cent of the population are now refugees in the surrounding villages. It's a disaster,' said Samer, (not his real name) a Druze journalist who spent years clandestinely reporting from Sweida during Syria's bloody civil war.
Samer spoke to The Independent from a partially functioning hospital in Sweida, where he said hundreds of the injured and dead were taken.
He asked to remain anonymous for fear of his life.
Samer described how bloody battles have raged between Syria's Druze fighters and local Bedouin armed factions. Damascus sent troops to quell the fighting, but they were drawn into the violence and accused of widespread violations against the Druze. The Independent has repeatedly reached out to multiple branches of the new government for comment and has yet to receive a reply.
The authorities keep making the wrong choices
Residents of the area claimed that Druze citizens had been shot at close range in their homes or in the streets by troops who appear to be government forces – videos shared online show people in military fatigues shooting men on their knees.
In one video, which fact-checking website Verify Syria said it has verified, a group of men in fatigues forced three men to jump off a balcony of a multi-storey building as they are shot.
The death toll is still climbing.
Outside of combatant deaths in battle, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said more than 320 people have been killed in summary executions, other forms of violence, and Israeli strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another monitoring group, has reported a total death toll of at least 940 people.
The UN says at least 87,000 people have been displaced within Sweida governorate and towards neighbouring Daraa. Much-needed humanitarian and medical aid is unable to enter the region due to ongoing clashes.
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The surge in violence underlines the challenges facing interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. He has struggled to assert control over the south and areas near the Israeli border.
While Mr Sharaa has been buoyed by rapidly improving ties with global powers, the violence has highlighted lingering sectarian tensions and widespread distrust among minority groups towards his Islamist-led government.
'Instead of pursuing an inclusive, reconciliatory approach to reintegrate Sweida into the Syrian state … the authorities keep making the wrong choices,' said Armenak Tokmajyan, non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Centre.
He said that, while there had been rounds of dialogue with powerful Druze leaders, the discussions were largely focused on disarming them.
'Despite divisions within the Druze community, most … were unwilling to hand over their weapons without clarity on the future shape of the state. Then came the recent escalation, which I think could have been averted had the authorities exercised self-restraint and not immediately resorted to violence.'
We want to live as citizens, without fear of others. That's it
Amid this chaos, Israel has entered the fray.
'The Israelis took all the weapons from the people,' says Ahmed Hassoun, head of the municipality of Hader, a Druze town less than 5km from the border with Israeli-occupied Golan.
'Most days they are here. It's become a fact for us. We can do nothing. Their forces are coming in and out. We are helpless. We are just civilians. What can we do with this reality?'
In Sweida, Samer said that Israel's claims that it has come to the 'rescue' of the Druze has only stoked pre-existing sectarian tensions that have simmered and flared throughout the 14-year civil war. 'Just a few months after liberation, Israel has mixed the cards in the south,' he added.
On Friday, an Israeli official said it had agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area for two days. But many fear that this is just temporary and that Israel is trying to leverage internal domestic turmoil in Syria to keep it weak.
In Sweida, where a tentative ceasefire is fast collapsing, the biggest fear is yet more massacres.
'There is a ceasefire in place, but five minutes ago government forces attacked one area by drones,' says Samer, with desperation. 'The Druze people just want safety. They don't want to be afraid of other factions and sects. They don't want to separate from the rest of Syria. We want to live as citizens, without fear of others. That's it.'