DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel.
Convoys of government forces began withdrawing from the city of Sweida, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement, announced by Syria’s Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold. A previous ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart, and a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement.
Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement.
Rare Israeli airstrikes in the heart of Damascus
The announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze and push Islamic militants away from its border. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military.
The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, but also in some cases attacked civilians.
The violence appeared to be the most serious threat yet to efforts by Syria’s new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, ending a nearly 14-year civil war.
Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in footage on state television early Thursday, called the Druze an integral part of Syria and denounced Israel’s actions as sowing division.
“We affirm that protecting your rights and freedoms is among our top priorities,” he said, specifically addressing Druze people in Syria. “We reject any attempt — foreign or domestic — to sow division within our ranks. We are all partners in this land, and we will not allow any group to distort the beautiful image that Syria and its diversity represent.”
He said Israel sought to break Syrian unity and turn the country into a theater of chaos but that Syrians were rejecting division.
He said Syrians did not fear renewed war but sought the path of Syrian interest over destruction. “We assigned local factions and Druze spiritual leaders the responsibility of maintaining security in (Sweida), recognizing the gravity of the situation and the need to avoid dragging the country” into a new war, he said.
Syria’s new, primarily Sunni Muslim, authorities have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, especially after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed.
No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fighting since Monday, when the Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces.
Israel threatens further escalation
Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assad’s fall.
That strike killed three people and injured 34, Syrian officials said. Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the “painful blows have begun.”
Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders, saying it doesn’t want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
