On Monday evening, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that 99 people had been killed, including 60 Druze, including four civilians, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security forces personnel.
The defence ministry said 18 security personnel had been killed during attacks on military points by what it called “outlaw groups”.
On Tuesday morning, the Druze spiritual leadership said they had agreed to allow government forces to enter Suweida province in order to end the bloodshed. They also called on all armed groups there to co-operate and hand over their weapons.
But hours later, influential Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri posted a video called on Druze fighters to “resis[t] this brutal campaign by all available means”, accusing government forces of bombarding Suweida city in violation of a ceasefire agreement.
As security forces entered the city, Defence Minister Maj Gen Murhaf Abu Qasra announced a “complete ceasefire”, saying an agreement had been reached with “notables and dignitaries”.
“Suweida neighbourhoods will be under the control of Internal Security Forces as soon as combing operations are completed in order to control the chaos, secure return of residents to their houses,” he added.
Early on Tuesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said they had directed the Israeli military to immediately attack Syrian forces and weaponry sent to the Suweida area “that the regime intended to use against the Druze”.
They accused the Syrian government of contravening “the demilitarisation policy they decided on” and of endangering Israel by deploying forces there.
“Israel is committed to preventing harm being inflicted on the Druze in Syria, owing to the deep covenant of blood with our Druze citizens in Israel and their historical and familial link to the Druze in Syria,” they added.
The Syrian Observatory shared a video that it said showed at least one member of the security forces who was killed in an Israeli strike on a convoy.
There was no immediate response from the Syrian government.
Earlier this year, Netanyahu warned that he would not “tolerate any threat” to Syria’s Druze and demanded the complete demilitarisation of Suweida and two other southern provinces,
He said Israel saw interim President Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a threat. HTS is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN and UK, but no longer the US.
The Israeli military has already carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy the country’s military assets since the fall of the Assad regime.
And it has sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon.