Syrian security forces are preparing to redeploy to the Druze-majority Sweida city to quell fighting with Bedouin tribes, a Syrian interior ministry spokesperson said on Friday, further straining a fragile truce in Syria‘s south.
A ceasefire announced on Wednesday briefly ended days of bloody fighting that erupted when Bedouin and Druze fighters clashed in Sweida province, prompting the Syrian government to send in troops – further spiking violence.
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The clashes drew in Israel, which said it would not allow Syria’s Islamist-led government to deploy troops to the south and struck Syrian troops in Sweida, the defence ministry and close to the presidential palace in Damascus.
Syrian troops withdrew from Sweida after the truce was announced but clashes sparked up again late Thursday between the tribal Bedouin fighters and the Druze, part of a religious minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
Read moreWho are the Druze, and why are they at the heart of Syria-Israel tensions?
At least 594 people have been killed in several days of fighting, government forces and Bedouin groups, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, which alleges that both Syrian government forces and Druze fighters have carried out summary executions.
Israel says sending humanitarian aid
Israel announced on Friday that it was sending humanitarian aid to Sweida’s Druze population, while also denying reports that it carried out renewed strikes in the area overnight.
“Against the backdrop of recent attacks targeting the Druze community in Sweida and the severe humanitarian situation in the area, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has ordered the urgent transfer of humanitarian aid to the Druze population in the region,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The aid package will amount to 2 million shekels (nearly $600,000) and will include food parcels and medical supplies, the ministry added.
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Describing Syria’s new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has vowed to shield the area’s Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel’s own Druze minority.
Its deep distrust of Syria’s new Islamist-led leadership appears to be at odds with the United States, which said it did not support recent Israeli strikes on Syria.
Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the US, has accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP)
