Middle East: Truce between warring factions in Sweida holds

Ninety-three Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds trying to collect humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to the civil defense agency in the besieged enclave.

Eighty were reportedly killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north, nine near an aid station near the southern city of Rafah, and four in Khan Younis, also in the south, an agency spokesman told the AFP news agency.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry had earlier put the total death toll at 85, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The United Nations World Food Program said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid "encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire" near Gaza City, soon after clearing checkpoints upon entry from Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) disputed the death toll and said troops had fired warning shots "to remove an immediate threat posed to them" as thousands gathered near Gaza City.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) criticized an Israeli military order for residents and displaced people in the Deir el-Balah area to move south as "yet another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip."

After the issuing of the latest displacement order, ostensibly due to imminent IDF operations, whole families could be seen lugging their few belongings and heading south.

But OCHA said UN staff were "remaining" in the evacuation zone and their coordinates had been shared with "relevant parties."

"These locations – as with all civilian sites – must be protected, regardless of displacement orders," the agency said, warning that any damage to health clinics, water infrastructure, and aid warehouses in the area "will have life-threatening consequences" for the population.

The German government has criticized the distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), calling it inadequate. 

"In the view of the German government, it is now obvious that [the GHF's new distribution mechanism] does not reach the civilian population to a sufficient extent and does not operate in accordance with humanitarian principles," the Foreign Office in Berlin said.

The comment was made in response to a query from the Greens parliamentary group, which was made available to German news agency dpa.

The German government statement says that no state funds are being channelled from Germany to the GHF. There are also no pending decisions on funding for the GHF.

Fatal incidents at GHF distribution centres

The GHF, which is supported by Israel and the United States, began its work at the end of May following a month-long Israeli blockade of aid deliveries. It hands out food at a small number of distribution centers in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

There have been repeated reports of fatal incidents near GHF distribution centers, with the Israeli army accused of killing people waiting to receive aid.

According to the United Nations, hundreds of deaths have been recorded at GHF distribution centers in Gaza since the end of May.

Israel asserts that the new distribution mechanism was introduced to prevent Palestinian extremist group Hamas from stealing aid. However, critics have accused Israel of instrumentalizing aid to achieve its war aims.

Previously, the UN had operated around 400 distribution centers in the Gaza Strip to supply around two million Palestinians. 

Following the week-long fighting in Sweida between Druze factions and Sunni Muslim Bedouins, allegations have emerged of atrocities perpetrated by the two warring Syrian sides.

Hundreds have been left dead following one of the country's bloodiest clashes since the overthrow of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

After the violence broke out, Syrian government troops intervened, prompting Israel to attack targets in the region and the capital Damascus, citing its duty to protect the Druze.

The war monitoring organization the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday reported massive abuses in Sweida including the summary executions of 197 people, mostly by government forces and allied fighters.

"The atrocities in Sweida included beheadings of the Druze and torching their houses by fighters coming from outside the province," the Observatory's head Rami Abdel-Rahman told news agency dpa.

In the wake of the upheaval in the coastal region, the Syrian government tasked a commission with investigating the violence there.

The Syrian presidency on Sunday said interim leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, had received the commission's final report, but the findings have yet to be made public.

However, the UK-based monitor, relying on a network of reporters inside Syria, cited videos, pictures and audio clips purportedly showing abuses by fighters on both sides, and said the actions amounted to war crimes.

The material could not be independently verified.

Syria's state news agency reported that the city of Sweida had been cleared of all tribal fighters and clashes in the neighborhoods had ended after the deployment of government troops. DW spoke to Middle East analyst Jonathan Spyer for more.

Israel on Sunday issued fresh evacuation orders for several areas in central Gaza that have thus far been spared a ground invasion, and which international organizations said were the usual areas for delivering aid.

The Israeli military ordered refugees and residents of Deir al-Balah to leave the area and head towards al-Malawsi on the Mediterranean coast.

Deir al-Balah has been the site of several bombing campaigns, but as yet has not had troops on the ground.

For over 18 months, Gazans have been displaced almost constantly due to changing guidance from Israel about where they should shelter.

Syria's Red Crescent announced that with the return of relative calm in Sweida, they had brought in dozens of trucks to assist residents struggling to get enough food and medicine after a week of fighting in the city.

"It's the first convoy to enter after the recent events, and it has arrived and is now inside Sweida," spokesman Omar al-Malki told French news agency AFP.

He added that the operation was done "in coordination with the government bodies and the local authorities in Sweida," which are controlled by the Druze.

Malki said that more convoys were expected to arrive soon.

Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that waiting for aid in Gaza has turned deadly once again, with at least 58 people killed on Sunday as they queued for aid trucks that were due to cross the border into the north of Gaza.

Eyewitnesses said that the victims were unarmed and had been waiting for food from the controversial US-run and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) when Israeli tanks began shelling them. Some reports suggest that many of the dead were children.

The incident is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on civilians waiting for aid, as the UN and other international bodies criticize Israel's conduct in Gaza as a policy of deliberate starvation.

The Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces have yet to comment on the incident.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a ceasefire in the southern Syrian province of Sweida appeared to be holding on Sunday, describing a quiet atmosphere. 

"Sweida has been experiencing a cautious calm," said the Observatory, noting the presence of government troops in the area. Troops have blocked roads into Sweida to prevent tribal fighters from entering the province. 

Sectarian violence recently erupted in the region, sparking a week of violent clashes between local Druze and Beduin rivals.

The Observatory said the clashes had left more than 1,000 people dead; including 336 Druze fighters, 298 Druze civilians, 342 government security personnel and 21 Sunni-Muslim Beduins.

Druze clashes with the Beduins this week grew so intense that government forces, as well as Israeli military forces and armed tribes from other parts of Syria also joined the fray.

 

An offshoot of Shia Islam whose members do not identify as Muslims, the Druze have a centuries-long history in the Middle East.

They are spread throughout the region, but in Syria they number some 700,000 and make up 3% of the population.

Read more: Syria: Who are the Druze?

We've resumed coverage with news that the ceasefire agreement between Druze groups and Bedouin tribes appeared to be holding (see below).

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said that "Sweida has been experiencing a cautious calm" since midnight.

The report said that Syrian government security forces had blocked roads leading to the province in order to prevent tribal fighters from entering Sweida.

After more than a week of clashes between Bedouin and Druze groups in Sweida, the Bedouin clans announced that they were withdrawing from the city.

Druze-majority Sweida province has also been hit by Israeli strikes in recent days, with Israel attacking government forces who had tacitly supported the Bedouins. 

Although Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has been more closely allied with the Bedouins, he urged them to lay down their arms, saying that paramilitaries "cannot replaced the role of the state in handling the country's affairs and restoring security."

"We thank the Bedouins for their heroic stances but demand they fully commit to the ceasefire and comply with the state's orders," he added.

The truce between the two groups was partly brokered by the United States, which dropped several of its sanctions against Syria in June following the ouster of strongman Bashar Assad.

Thank you for reading until now. We'll resume the blog shortly.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on the interim Syrian government to "prevent ISIS and any other violent jihadists from … carrying out massacres" in the conflict-stricken south of the country.

"The rape and slaughter of innocent people which has and is still occurring must end," he wrote on his personal account on X.

"If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria free of ISIS and of Iranian control, they must help end this calamity by using their security forces."

Rubio also demanded that the new Islamist-led regime in Damascus hold to account "anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks" and called for fighting between Druze and Bedouin groups in Sweida to stop.

Syrian government forces returned to the region on Saturday after withdrawing earlier in the week.

After the new German government resumed deportations to Afghanistan this week, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has floated a similar approach for Syria – despite the current unrest in the war-torn country.

"It's possible that, in future, Syrians who have committed criminal offenses [could be] deported," he told the BILD am Sonntag newspaper. "I think that's possible in principle – provided the country develops in [the right] direction."

Southern Syria has been rocked by violence again this week, with the new Islamist-led regime in Damascus struggling to prevent clashes between Druze and Bedouin factions in Sweida and powerless to stop Israeli intervention. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed.

"We are watching Syria with concern," said Wadephul, calling on the interim government under Ahmed al-Sharaa to ensure that all sections of the population and all religious groups can co-exist.

"No-one should have to fear for life and limb," he said. "But as it stands, we are of the opinion that we have to give this interim government a chance."