Armed tribes supported by Syria's Islamist-led government clashed with Druze fighters outside Sweida Friday a day after government troops withdrew from the Druze-majority city, the warring parties and a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported"clashes west of Sweida pitting tribal fighters and Bedouin supported by the authorities on one side, against Druze fighters on the other".
An Israeli official said Friday that Israel has agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days following days of bloodshed.
"In light of the ongoing instability in southwest Syria, Israel has agreed to allow limited entry of the (Syrian) internal security forces into Sweida district for the next 48 hours," the official, who declined to be named, told reporters.
Syria's interior ministry spokesperson said on Friday that government forces were not preparing to redeploy to Sweida Province, the state news agency reported.
The truce announced on Wednesday briefly ended days of bloody fighting that erupted when Bedouin and Druze fighters clashed in the southern province, prompting the Syrian government to send in troops – which further fanned the violence.
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.
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.
The head of the United Nations human rights office called on Friday for Syria's interim authorities to ensure accountability and justice for killings and rights violations in the southern city, saying it had received credible reports of widespread rights violations.
These included reports of summary executions, kidnappings and destruction of private property by security forces and individuals linked to Syria's interim authorities, as well as other armed elements including Druze and Bedouins, said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
"This bloodshed and the violence must stop, and the protection of all people must be the utmost priority, in line with international human rights law," OHCHR High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement.
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.
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.
