The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that it managed to return dozens of Druze who had crossed from Israel into Syria the previous day, aiming to reach their embattled brethren, adding that several dozen remained inside Syria, mostly in the Hader area, a Druze town just over the border.
The IDF and Israel Police also sent several Syrian Druze, who had crossed into Israel at the same time, back to Syria, the army said. It was unclear how many Syrian Druze still remained in Israel.
The mass breaches of the frontier came amid deadly clashes in the city of Sweida in southern Syria between the majority-Druze population and Bedouin tribes, leading some 1,000 Druze who live in Israel to rush the border.
Syrian government forces deployed to the Sweida area amid the clashes with the stated aim of overseeing a truce, but witnesses said they intervened against the Druze. In response, the IDF struck them and other military targets in Damascus, saying it was protecting the Druze.
Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida on Thursday on orders from the Islamist-led government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, AFP journalists reported from the provincial capital.
There were no crossings of the border or protests overnight, the Israeli army said Thursday, adding that work is scheduled to fix the breaches in the fence and, with police, set up blockades in the area to prevent any further crossings.
Meanwhile, a Syrian journalist affiliated with the country’s new regime published footage showing armed Druze fighters and residents in southern Syria cheering as an Israel Defense Forces convoy rolled through a nearby town.
In the footage, people wave Druze flags and hoot for the line of IDF vehicles, one of which is flying an Israeli flag.
One of the individuals is heard calling on the Israeli forces to go after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, apparently suggesting he be eliminated.
It was unclear exactly where and when the video was filmed.
مقاتلون دروز يحيون الجيش الاسرائيلي ويطلبون منه قتل الرئيس السوري أثناء رتل توغل في مناطق بجبل الشيخ
— Omar Alhariri (@omar_alharir) July 17, 2025
In a televised speech Thursday, Sharaa said community leaders would resume control over security in Sweida after the deployment of government troops on Tuesday fueled the sectarian bloodshed and prompted the Israeli intervention.
Government troops told AFP that the order to withdraw came shortly before midnight and they completed their pullout from the province at dawn.
An AFP photographer counted 15 bodies on the street in the center of Sweida on Thursday after government forces pulled out.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said more than 500 people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the city since Sunday.
Israel had pounded government troops with airstrikes during their brief deployment to the southern province and also struck army headquarters and near the Presidential Palace in Damascus, warning that its strikes would intensify until the Islamist-led government pulled back.
Sharaa, whose interim government has had troubled relations with ethnic and religious minority groups since it toppled veteran leader Bashar al-Assad in December, also pledged to protect the Druze.
A Kurdish official on Thursday urged the new government to rethink its approach to the country’s minorities following the deadly clashes.
“The transitional government must undertake a comprehensive and urgent review of its approach to dealing with Syria’s internal affairs, and begin a serious and responsible national dialogue with all components, while respecting the privacy and cultural and religious identity of each,” Bedran Ciya Kurd, a senior official in the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, said on X.
March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their hub on the Mediterranean coast, with government-affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings.
Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.
Israel has said it will not allow the Druze to be harmed. Israel, which is home to around 150,000 Druze, many of whom serve in the IDF, has repeatedly stated its intention to defend Syria’s Druze community.
The military, which has taken control of the UN-monitored demilitarized zone on the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria, also says it will not allow any Syrian military presence in the south.
Despite having initiated contact with a first face-to-face meeting in Azerbaijan earlier this month, Israel remains extremely wary of Syria’s new rulers, including Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement was once linked to al-Qaeda.
