Syria rejects Israeli 'politicisation' of Suweida's Druze

The Syrian government has accused Israel of exploiting the Druze community in the southern province of Suweida for political and electoral purposes, and of arming a militia in the area.

In a statement on Thursday evening carried by Syria’s state-run news agency, a government source said the Druze community in Suweida "has been and will remain an integral part of the national fabric of the Syrian Arab Republic," rejecting what it described as attempts to draw the community into Israeli political campaigning.

The statement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had spoken by phone with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during the violence in Suweida in July 2025.

Addressing an election campaign gathering of Druze citizens in the northern Israeli town of Yarka, Netanyahu described the call as "short and very sharp" and claimed he had helped stop a massacre.

"We took down the Ministry of Defense [headquarters] in Damascus, just like that, it’s gone. We struck inside the [Presidential] Palace compound, and I made a phone call to Sharaa. It was a very brief, very sharp conversation, and the massacre stopped," Netanyahu said.

Damascus has neither confirmed nor denied that the call took place.

The Syrian government said Israel had played a "major and deliberate role" in undermining civil peace in Suweida in July 2025, accusing it of arming an outlawed militia to foment unrest and create a pretext for drawing Syria into a wider war. The source also said the government had thwarted those efforts and was monitoring what it described as continued Israeli attempts to destabilise the province.

The source said US mediation had led to a halt in Israeli airstrikes in July 2025, which it claimed had prevented the Syrian government from intervening to end the clashes between Druze and Bedouin groups.

It also said Damascus was continuing to work with the United States and Jordan to implement a joint roadmap for Suweida, aimed at reintegrating the province under a national framework that safeguards residents’ rights and promotes security and stability.

In September 2025, Syria, Jordan and the United States announced the roadmap, which included commitments to rebuild trust, promote community reconciliation, investigate violations and hold those responsible to account, as well as facilitate humanitarian aid and restore essential services. It remains unclear how far these commitments have been implemented.

A ceasefire has been in place in Suweida since July 2025, following deadly clashes that began between Bedouin tribes and Druze groups before escalating with the intervention of government forces and tribal fighters who arrived in the province to support the Bedouin side.

The fighting involved grave human rights abuses against Druze civilians, including summary executions, according to reports documenting the violence.

A Syrian investigative committee said in March that 1,760 people from all sides had been killed and 2,188 injured. Other monitoring groups have reported higher death tolls.

Suweida remains largely outside central government control. Some factions aligned with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri have called for Israeli protection or closer ties with Israel, while other Druze religious figures, activists and armed groups have rejected Israeli intervention and called for the province to remain part of a unified Syria.

Israel currently occupies parts of southwestern Syria, which Israeli forces stormed in December 2024 following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Damascus has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw from these territories and return to the 1974 disengagement agreement.

The Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights are also home to a Druze community. Israel has occupied the territory since 1967 and later annexed it, a move recognised by the United States and Colombia but rejected by most of the international community.

Syria is emerging from a brutal 14-year civil war, and the new government has struggled to reassert central authority across the country amid continuing security, social and economic challenges.