A renewed ceasefire was announced Wednesday between the Syrian government and Druze leaders following intense clashes in the southern province of Sweida, but uncertainty remains about whether it will hold.
Convoys of Syrian government forces began withdrawing from Sweida, although signs of continued violence and skepticism from key Druze figures clouded the truce’s prospects.
The ceasefire announcement came via Syria’s Interior Ministry and a video statement by a Druze religious leader.
However, a similar truce declared a day earlier fell apart quickly, and influential Druze cleric Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri has already rejected the new deal.
Despite the ceasefire declaration, Israel continued to carry out airstrikes.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces struck central Damascus, targeting the Syrian Defense Ministry near a busy square. The attack killed three people and injured 34 others, according to Syrian officials. Another strike reportedly hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside the capital.
Israel said the strikes were aimed at defending the Druze community and preventing Islamic militants from consolidating near its border. The Druze, a religious minority with significant populations in Syria and Israel, are viewed as loyal citizens by Israel, with many serving in its military.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, in a post on X following the Damascus strike, said that the "painful blows have begun." He later added that Israel "will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area – and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood."
An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously, said a brigade was being pulled out of Gaza and redeployed to the Golan Heights as the army prepares for “a multitude of scenarios.”
Tensions in southern Syria escalated after violent confrontations erupted between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze factions. Government forces initially intervened to restore order, but were accused of also targeting civilians.
The fighting poses a serious challenge to the fragile authority of Syria’s new rulers, who assumed control after a rebel coalition ousted Bashar Assad in December, ending nearly 14 years of civil war.
The Sunni-led government has struggled to earn the trust of minority groups. Earlier sectarian violence between government troops and pro-Assad militias in March led to revenge attacks, with hundreds of Alawite civilians - Assad’s sect - reportedly killed.
No official death toll has been confirmed since Monday, when the Interior Ministry reported 30 deaths. However, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said over 300 people have died as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women, and 165 government soldiers and security personnel. The observatory also reported that 27 people were executed in the field.
In addition to hitting Damascus, Israeli airstrikes targeted military convoys headed into Sweida and a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Videos posted online have intensified tensions, showing government-aligned fighters humiliating Druze religious leaders and desecrating symbols of Druze identity. In response, other videos captured Druze fighters beating captured government soldiers and posing with their bodies.
AP journalists on the ground witnessed burned homes and looted areas.
The Druze religion, a 10th-century offshoot of Ismaili Shiite Islam, has around one million adherents worldwide, with over half living in Syria. Other Druze communities are concentrated in Lebanon and Israel, including the Golan Heights region annexed by Israel in 1981.
Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, issued a statement Wednesday condemning the violence: “These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances, and completely contradict the principles that the Syrian state is built on.”
In a rare display of cross-border solidarity, Druze in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights gathered along the border fence to protest the treatment of their brethren in Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington is “very concerned” about the escalating violence, attributing it to a “misunderstanding,” and confirmed that the U.S. has been in touch with both sides to try to restore calm.