Israel, the Druze, and al-Sharaa: An Update

By Hugh Fitzgerald | July 18, 2025

The American government is said to have been opposed Israel’s latest intervention in Syria, where the Israeli Air Force bombed Syrian army troops and weapons in the Druze stronghold of Suweyda, and also struck the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus, and a site next to he presidential palace, as a way to warn Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa of what Israel could do to him if it had a mind to, and that much would depend on his reaction to the bombing. He got the message, pulled his troops out of Suweyda, and agreed to a ceasefire with the Druze in that city. He even said, after several days when his troops had murdered Druze soldiers and civilians in Suweyda, setting some on fire, that his government would “protect the Druze.” Many of the Druze, especially those in Israel who, unlike those in Syria, are not afraid to talk, deeply mistrust al-Sharaa, whom they continue to regard as a Sunni jihadist.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observed, it was not “requests” or “pleas” that brought about the ceasefire and the retreat of Syrian forces from Suweyda, and the ceasefire, but the military strikes let loose by the IDF on Syrian forces in Suweyda and army headquarters in Damascus. More on Netanyahu, the American reaction, al-Sharaa’s agreeing to a ceasefire, and the cautious Druze reaction, can be found here: “Netanyahu confirms ceasefire, Syrian withdrawal from Sweida due to ‘forceful action,’” Jerusalem Post, July 17, 2025:

Israel has achieved a ceasefire in Syria through “forceful actions,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

“We have established a clear policy: the demilitarization of the area south of Damascus and the protection of our brothers, the Druze,” he said.

“I instructed the IDF to act with force, because the Damascus regime sent its army south of the capital and massacred the Druze. As a result of our intensified action, a ceasefire has been established, and Syrian forces have withdrawn back to Damascus.”

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government would soon withdraw its forces from areas with Druze populations, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday night.

Syria’s Druze had reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Sweida that would take immediate effect, Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said in a video broadcast by state media on Wednesday, Reuters reported earlier.

A ceasefire announced on Tuesday night collapsed after a few hours. There was still fire from government forces in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida after the announcement was made, a witness told Reuters.

Syria’s official Syrian Arab News Agency corroborated the reports of a ceasefire agreement and said security checkpoints had been deployed across Sweida.

Israel struck the entrance to the Syrian regime’s military headquarters complex in Damascus, the IDF reported Wednesday.

On Thursday, Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority after US intervention to help achieve a truce in fighting between government forces and Druze fighters….

Israel is not interested in fracturing Syria. It believes it has a duty to protect the Druze people, for Druze in Israel have been fighting alongside Jewish soldiers ever since the 1948 war. The Druze are the only non-Jewish group in Israel who are required to serve in the military, and they have done so with great distinction. Major-General Ghassan Allian, a Druze, is the head of Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). The Israelis were determined to stop the slaughter of those whom Netanyahu called the “brothers of our brothers” (the Israeli Druze), and they have now done so.

A round of fighting between the Bedouin and Druze earlier this week prompted the government to send troops to Sweida to quell the clashes, but the violence escalated until a ceasefire was declared.

The troops were sent in by Al-Sharaa to Suweyda not just to stop the fighting between the Druze and the Bedouin, but to assert Damascus’ control over the Druze, to force them to agree to his previous insistence that the Druze militia be incorporated into the national army. This is something the Druze will never do.

The Druze have kept their weapons, and it is the Syrian army, under pressure from Israel’s military, that had to withdraw from the Druze stronghold. But the fighting between the Druze and the Bedouin has continued, and al-Sharaa has again sent his army back into Suweyda, to “restore order,” but also to fight the Druze, so that they will at last agree to folding their militia into the Syrian army.

The violence has underlined the challenges that Sharaa faces in stabilizing Syria and exerting centralized rule, despite his warming ties with the US and his administration’s evolving security contacts with Israel.

The Israelis do not share the faith in Al-Sharaa that the American government apparently has. It continues to regard al-Sharaa, a former supporter of Al-Qaeda,with great suspicion, and that suspicion only increased when he did nothing to prevent the murderous attacks by Sunnis, including some ‘Syrian army troops, on the Alawites in Latakia, nor has he arrested those who have been murdering Christians, including those behind the suicide bombing of the ancient church of Mar Elias, where 25 worshippers were killed and 63 wounded. Until Al-Sharaa starts rounding up those responsible for the attacks on Syria’s minorities, the Israelis will continue to regard him with a jaundiced eye.

One local journalist said he had counted more than 60 bodies in the streets of Sweida on Thursday morning. Ryan Marouf of Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man….

In fact, more than 600 people have now been killed in Suweyda, many of them Druze civilians. Syrian army men have been grabbing Druze men, beating them, and forcibly shaving off their religiously-mandated mustaches. One 80-year-old Druze religious leader collapsed and died soon after having been humiliated by such treatment.

Israel, which bombed Syria frequently under the rule of ousted president Bashar al-Assad, has struck the country repeatedly this year, describing its new leaders as barely disguised jihadists and saying it will not allow them to deploy forces in areas of southern Syria near its border.

Israel has repeatedly made clear that the area between Damascus and the border with Israel must be demilitarized, either voluntarily or, if the Syrians are not forthcoming, the IDF will bomb the weapons that Syria refuses to withdraw from the area.