The Israeli military struck the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus twice on Wednesday as it intervened in the clashes between the Syrian army and Druze fighters in southern Syria in the country’s deadliest violence in months.
The strikes collapsed four floors of the ministry and ruined its facade. The strikes killed one person and injured 18, Syrian officials said.
It was the first time Israel had targeted Damascus since May and the third day in a row it had conducted airstrikes against the Syrian military.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said the strike on the defence ministry had been a message to the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa “regarding the events in Suweida”. The Israeli military struck Syrian tanks on Monday and has continued to conduct dozens of drone strikes on troops, killing some soldiers.
Israel has said it will not allow the Syrian army to deploy in the south of the country, and that it would protect the Druze community from the Damascus government. Many in the Druze community have rebuffed Israel’s claim of patronage for fear of being viewed as a foreign proxy.
The Israeli bombing added another complication to an already escalating conflict between Syrian government forces, Bedouin Arab tribes and Druze fighters. More than 250 people have been killed in four days of clashes, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
On Wednesday, the Syrian government and one of the three spiritual leaders of the Syrian Druze community announced a ceasefire. It was unclear if the truce would hold, however, as another spiritual leader, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, vowed to keep fighting, calling the government a collection of “armed gangs”.
A ceasefire announced on Tuesday broke down in similar circumstances.
On Wednesday night, Reuters reported that the UN security council would meet on Thursday to discuss the situation.
The clashes pitting mostly Sunni government forces against Druze fighters have prompted fears of a wider sectarian conflict. An attack in March by remnants of the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad on security forces led to violence in which more than 1,500 people were killed, most of them from the minority Alawite community.
The violence is the most serious challenge to Damascus’s rule since the coastal massacres and has threatened to further push away everyday Druze from the state.
The Druze, a religious minority in Syria and the wider Middle East, make up the majority of the population of Suweida province in the south of the country. They have been negotiating with the Islamist-led authorities in Damascus since the fall of Assad, in an attempt to achieve some form of autonomy. They have yet to reach an agreement that defines their relationship with the new Syrian state.
The Syrian army entered Suweida on Sunday in an attempt to restore calm between Druze fighters and Arab Bedouin tribes.
Fighting broke out after Bedouin tribe members robbed a Druze man on the main road south of Damascus, kicking off a cycle of retaliatory violence between the two groups. Intermittent violence between members of the Druze and Bedouin communities has been common in the area in recent years.
Some Druze militias have vowed to prevent Syrian government forces entering Suweida and have attacked them, leading to escalating clashes.
As government forces entered Suweida, accounts of human rights abuses began to emerge.
On Tuesday around noon, armed gunmen entered a reception hall belonging to the Radwan family in Suweida and killed 15 unarmed men and one woman, three members of the family told the Guardian. The SOHR also reported the killings, though put the number of dead at 12.
“I just lost nine close friends and relatives. It just makes me feel so sad. There are no weapons allowed in the [hall], it’s not like it’s a military base,” said Maan Radwan, a 46-year-old London resident whose relatives were killed in the shooting.
Video of the aftermath of the shooting showed unarmed men strewn across a room lying in pools of blood. Family members said men in army fatigues prevented ambulances from reaching the reception hall, which they thought was meant to ensure the wounded died from blood loss.
“We don’t know who is with general security, who are jihadists, who are Bedouin tribespeople. It’s impossible to tell who is killing us,” a 52-year old teacher and relative of the Radwan family in Suweida told the Guardian by phone.
A surgeon at the Suweida national hospital said that the bodies of those killed in the Radwan house bore close-range gunshot wounds, adding that they knew many of those who were killed in the shootings personally.
Sharaa issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the human rights violations.
“These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances and completely contradict the principles that the Syrian state is built on,” the statement said, adding that perpetrators would be held accountable.
The US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, posted on X saying: “Actions must follow to end violence, ensure accountability and protect all Syrians.”
It was unclear who was committing the abuses against civilians, and witnesses said they could not distinguish between state security forces and militia fighters.
On their private social media, two members of the government forces posted sectarian hate speech against Druze.
One member of the government forces posted a video of him and two other soldiers driving through Suweida laughing as he said: “We are on our way to distribute aid,” while brandishing a machete to the camera. He filmed himself inside a house in Suweida ripping a picture of Druze spiritual leaders off a wall and trampling it with his boots.
“If God grants you victory, none can defeat you. We are coming for you with sectarianism,” he continued.
The Syrian defence ministry said it was “adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents”.
Several civilians in Suweida city described being locked inside their home as fighting continued outside, while electricity and other basic supplies have been cut off.
One 52-year-old English teacher said they had watched as their neighbour was shot dead by a hidden sniper, and that no one could collect the body for fear of being shot.
A 31-year-old resident of Suweida said he watched as armed men burned the shop below his house, calling the Druze “swine” as they ransacked the neighbouring building.
The Syrian interior ministry said the continued fighting could only be solved by integrating the Druze-majority province into the state and said it came “in the absence of relevant official institutions”.
The killings in Suweida provoked anger among the wider Druze community in the Middle East. Some Israeli Druze in the occupied Golan Heights managed to cross the fence into Syria before being retrieved by the Israeli army. The Israeli military also said that it had reinforced its presence along the Syria-Israel border.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement urging people not to try to cross the border into Syria.
“Do not cross the border. You are risking your lives; you could be murdered, you could be taken hostage, and you are impeding the efforts of the IDF,” he said.
Relations between Israel and Syria had begun to thaw before this week, with Israeli and Syrian officials engaging in security discussions and military coordination. Syria’s leadership has hinted it could eventually normalise relations with its southern neighbour.
After the fall of Assad, the Israeli military launched hundreds of airstrikes against military assets in Syria and invaded the country’s south, where it continues to occupy large swathes of territory.