Following the latest serious attacks and fighting in Suweida, hundreds of members of Bedouin families have been evacuated from the province in southern Syria. According to the ANHA news agency, more than 1,500 people were taken to the rural region of neighboring Daraa with the support of the Syrian Red Crescent. The aim is to prevent further escalation of violence and stabilize the situation in the embattled province.
The evacuation of Bedouin families who had only arrived in Suweida after the outbreak of the latest wave of violence took place after days of fighting between troops and supporters of the Islamist transitional government in Damascus and Druze self-defense forces. Parallel to nighttime attacks by jihadists on several towns in Suweida, Israeli fighter jets carried out airstrikes last night on targets in the vicinity of the city. Among those affected were the villages of Al-Ariqa and Umm al-Zaytoun in the north. The village of Dama was also bombed.
Following an agreed but fragile ceasefire, units of the transitional government withdrew from parts of the region. Israel’s military responded by dropping aid supplies over the city. At the same time, the situation in several towns continued to escalate. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), heavy fighting broke out in Umm al-Zaytoun, among other places. Islamists are said to have set fire to civilian homes and blocked important transport routes. A planned prisoner exchange in the village failed on Sunday evening due to mortar attacks by jihadist militiamen, further exacerbating the security situation.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 1,100 people have been killed since violence broke out in the province of Suweida on Sunday. 531 of the fatalities were Druze, including several civilians executed by Islamists. According to SOHR, the dead include more than 370 members of the self-proclaimed transitional government and several members of Bedouin tribes. A journalist was also killed during the clashes.
The humanitarian situation in Suweida remains critical. The population is increasingly fearful of further violence and displacement. Calls from within Syria and abroad for an immediate end to the fighting and for measures to protect the civilian population are growing.