BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Israel and Syria have reached a ceasefire agreement, according to the US envoy to Turkey, following several days of intense violence in a mainly Druze region that has left more than 300 dead.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Israel carried out airstrikes in Damascus and targeted Syrian government forces in the south, urging their withdrawal. Israel stated that its actions were aimed at protecting the Druze community — a small but significant minority with members in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey, said in a post on X.
Barrack said that Israel and Syria agreed to the ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and neighbours.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian consulate in Canada did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Syria’s Sweida province has been engulfed by nearly a week of violence triggered by clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions.
Earlier on Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days.
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.
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 before withdrawing under a truce agreed on Wednesday.
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.
“In light of the ongoing instability in southwest Syria, Israel has agreed to allow limited entry of the (Syrian) internal security forces into Sweida district for the next 48 hours,” the official, who declined to be named, told reporters.
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.
It carried out more strikes on Sweida in the early hours of Friday.
The US intervened to help secure the earlier truce between government forces and Druze fighters, and the White House said on Thursday that it appeared to be holding.
Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the US, accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority.
Reuters reporters saw a convoy of units from Syria’s interior ministry stopped on a road in Daraa province, which lies directly east of Sweida. A security source told Reuters that forces were awaiting a final green light to enter Sweida.
But thousands of Bedouin fighters were still streaming into Sweida on Friday, the Reuters reporters said, prompting fears among residents that violence would continue unabated.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented 321 deaths in fighting since Sunday, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides.
Syria’s minister for emergencies said more than 500 wounded had been treated and hundreds of families had been evacuated out of the city.
