Anchor flees in horror scenes on live TV
Israel's surprise strikes on the Syrian capital of Damascus were captured live on local television, following days of bloody internal conflict.
Journalists and news broadcasters in Syria ducked for cover as air strikes reigned down on the ancient city, with authorities claiming 'several' civilians were killed.
The strikes came after three days of fighting between Syrian soldiers, Bedouin tribes and Druze community members in the southern city of Sweida.
The bombing was caught on live TV.
War monitors report up to 350 people have been killed, and Syrian authorities had promised to investigate reports of 'summary executions' of Druze people.
Syria's Druze community has links to Israel's Druze peoples, who live near the northern border. The Druze are an Arab religious group which adhere to the Druze faith.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the 'situation in southwestern Syria, is very serious'.
'We are working to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime's gangs,' he said.
Israel has presented itself as a defender of the group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.
Following the fall of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the Israeli military took control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria.
Prior to Wednesday's attack on Damscus, Israel had conducted air strikes in Sweida province earlier this week in what it said was defence of the Druze.
Israel said it struck a 'military target' in the area of the presidential palace, while a Syrian interior ministry source reported strikes outside the capital in 'the vicinity of the Mazzeh (military) airport'.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to 'leave the Druze in Sweida alone', and threatened to unleash 'painful blows' until government forces pulled back.
Syria's Foreign Ministry has called the Israeli action as 'treacherous aggression', saying they had resulted in the loss of 'several innocent civilians'.
'This flagrant assault, which forms part of a deliberate policy pursued by the Israeli entity to inflame tensions, spread chaos, and undermine security and stability in Syria, constitutes a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and international humanitarian law,' it added.
Syria has announced its army had begun to pull back from Sweida following the strikes.
Smoke billows following Israeli strikes near the Syrian army and defence ministry headquarters in Damascus on July 16, 2025. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was an agreement to restore calm in Syria by late Wednesday, as he blamed a 'misunderstanding' over the violence.
'We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight,' Mr Rubio wrote on X.
'This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do,' he wrote, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement.
Mr Rubio, who had earlier said to expect 'real progress' within hours, blamed 'historic longtime rivalries' for the clashes in the majority-Druze city of Sweida, in Syria's south, which Israel has cited for its latest military intervention.
'It led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,' Mr Rubio told reporters in the White House of the situation which has included Israel bombing the Syrian army's headquarters in the capital Damascus.
The aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Syria's defence ministry headquarters is seen on July 16, 2025 in Damascus, Syria. (Photo by Ali)
'We've been engaged with them all morning long and all night long — with both sides — and we think we're on our way towards a real de-escalation and then hopefully get back on track and helping Syria build the country and arriving at a situation in the Middle East that is far more stable,' Mr Rubio, who is also national security adviser, said as Donald Trump nodded.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, speaking shortly before Mr Rubio's announcement of a deal, said that the United States had asked Syrian government forces to pull out of the flashpoint area.
US President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
'We are calling on the Syrian government to, in fact, withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate and find a path forward,' she told reporters, without specifying the exact area.
She declined comment on whether the United States wanted Israel to stop its strikes.
Mr Rubio, asked by a reporter earlier in the day at the State Department what he thought of Israel's bombing, said, 'We're very concerned about it. We want it to stop'.
The State Department afterwards issued fuller comments in which Mr Rubio did not directly reference Israel but said that the communal violence was a 'direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria'.
A woman carries a Druze and an Israeli flag, Many Druze faith followers live within Israel. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
'We have been and remain in repeated and constant talks with the governments of Syria and Israel on this matter,' he said Mr Trump has staunchly backed Israel including in its military campaigns in Gaza and Iran.
But he has been prioritising diplomacy with Syria's new leadership, seeing an opening after Sunni Islamist-led fighters toppled longtime ruler al-Assad in December.
Originally published as Anchor flees in horror scenes on live TV
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