The United States announced Friday that Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, after days of bloodshed in the predominantly Druze area of Sweida that has killed over 300 people.
On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying that Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze — part of a small but influential minority that also has members in Lebanon and Israel.
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who also serves as special envoy for Syria, wrote in a post on X that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with the support of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, agreed to a ceasefire “embraced” by Turkey, Jordan, and other unidentified neighbors.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Barrack said, without offering any further details about the ceasefire.
Al-Sharaa’s office confirmed an “immediate ceasefire” in Sweida on Saturday as interior ministry forces deployed in the Druze-majority province.
The presidency called on “all parties to fully respect” the truce.
Al-Sharaa, in a separate speech, said that “Arab and American” mediation had helped bring calm and criticized Israel for airstrikes against Syrian government forces in the south and Damascus during the week.
He blamed “armed groups from Sweida” for reigniting the conflict by “launching retaliatory attacks against the Bedouins and their families.” He also said Israeli intervention “pushed the country into a dangerous phase.”
Al-Sharaa called for calm and said Syria would not be a “testing ground for partition, secession, or sectarian incitement.”
Israel has not confirmed the ceasefire, and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar put out a statement condemning Sharaa for glorifying the Bedouins who carried out the attacks and blaming the victims, the Druze.
The speech of Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara was a display of support for the jihadists attackers (in al-Shara’s words: “The Bedouin tribes as a symbol of noble values and principles”) and blaming the victims (the attacked Druze minority).
Al-Shara spiced all this with…— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 19, 2025
“Bottom line: In al-Shara’s Syria, it is very dangerous to be a member of a minority—Kurd, Druze, Alawite, or Christian. This has been proven time and again over the past six months,” Sa’ar said.
“The international community has a duty to ensure the security and rights of the minorities in Syria and to condition Syria’s renewed acceptance into the family of nations on their protection,” he said.
The announcement came as renewed clashes erupted between Druze groups and Bedouin clans, which have left hundreds dead and tens of thousands of people displaced in a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The Syrian presidency said late on Friday that authorities would deploy a force in the south dedicated to ending the clashes, in coordination with political and security measures to restore stability and prevent the return of violence.
In Israel, meanwhile, the IDF said dozens of Druze residents of Israel broke through the border into Syria early Saturday morning, with some of them “acting violently” toward Israeli troops. They were part of a larger group of Druze who arrived at the border near the northern Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams. The military said troops and Border Police officers tried to disperse the “violent gathering.”
The IDF said it “views violence of any kind against its personnel and the security forces gravely,” adding that it “emphasizes that crossing the border to Syria constitutes a criminal offense and endangers the public as well as IDF troops.”
The military said forces continue to operate to return the civilians to Israel.
Damascus earlier this week dispatched government troops to quell the fighting, but they were accused of carrying out widespread violations against the Druze and were hit by Israeli strikes.
Israel had repeatedly said it would not allow Syrian troops to deploy to the country’s south, but on Friday, it said it would grant them a brief window to end renewed clashes there.
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.
