Even though the government announced a ceasefire, deadly fighting between armed fighters from the Druze society and armed groups from the Bedouin tribes continues in Syria’s southern province of Sweida. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), more than 900 people have died since the fighting began on July 13.
Government Announces Ceasefire
According to The Guardian and AA President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced an “immediate and comprehensive” ceasefire, calling on all involved parties to cease fighting. The Syrian interior ministry stated that it had sent internal security forces to Sweida and also to “protect civilians.”
The fighting hasn’t stopped. Armed groups affiliated with the Druze society have resumed attacks on farmers’ villages, which ignited fighting despite attempts to facilitate peace by the U.S., Israel, and regional forces like Turkey and Jordan.
U.S., Israel Engage in Diplomatic Actions
The United States helped catalyse the ceasefire, with U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack stating that both Israel and Syria agreed to cease fighting. According to Reuters, last Wednesday, Israel bombed Syrian military targets in Damascus, stunning Syrian authorities, who believed they had U.S. approval to send a force to the south.
Humanitarian Crisis Worsens
Sweida’s human rights violations, malnutrition, and health conditions have reached levels the Syrian Observatory and the International Committee of the Red Cross have classified as severely worrisome, and they have warned that the entire region is heading to a humanitarian crisis. Hospitals collapsed, food ceased to be, and communication ground to a halt.
‘I wouldn’t describe the ceasefire as anything other than fragile and shaky. It could go either way.’@AlexCrawfordSky reports from outside Sweida in Syria – the city at the heart of the sectarian fighting, where the violence traps 30,000 people.https://t.co/VmTU5gKib7 pic.twitter.com/MLQmSul7c2
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 20, 2025
“We can’t find milk for children,” Rayan Maarouf, editor of local paper Suwayda 24, told The Guardian. The ICRC commented that “power cuts meant human remains are putrefying in the crammed mortuaries.”
SOHR described the state of affairs in late Jan/mid-February, affecting Sweida National Hospital, as “catastrophic” as dead bodies piled up, rotting due to a lack of refrigeration, all because there are no doctors to treat the sick and provide what health care lacks.
Minority Representation in Doubt
Many people in Syria suspect that the ceasefire may not hold. Bassam Alahmad, a civil rights leader with Syrians for Truth and Justice, told The Guardian that the minorities of Syria feel excluded from the new regime and that the government is using a military approach, which brings back memories of the failed approach of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. There are also loyalists to the regime who are afraid that if the state retreats from Sweida, it will embolden other ethnic and religious minorities to demand some level of independence, risking further Balkanisation of the country.
Syria’s Islamist-led government said its security forces were deploying in the predominantly Druze southern city of Sweida and urged all parties to respect a ceasefire after days of factional bloodshed that left hundreds dead https://t.co/Wrl8zmU7wI pic.twitter.com/O278OweXWn
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 19, 2025
Ceasefire on Paper
Despite Syria’s president warning that any violations of the ceasefire would be “a clear violation of sovereignty,” fighting continues. AFP reporters on the ground still see battles between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribal gunmen, who many thought to be Islamists.
