Key occasions
Present key occasions solely
Please activate JavaScript to make use of this function
Syrian safety forces able to deploy to Sweida
Syrian safety forces are getting ready to redeploy to the Druze-majority Sweida metropolis to quell combating by the Druze and Bedouin tribes, the Syrian inside ministry spokesperson mentioned on Friday, Reuters stories.
A ceasefire introduced on Wednesday briefly ended days of bloody combating that erupted when Bedouin and Druze fighters clashed in Sweida province, prompting the Syrian authorities to ship in troops – additional spiking violence.
The clashes drew in Israel, which mentioned it could not permit Syria’s Islamist-led authorities to deploy troops to the south and struck Syrian troops in Sweida, the defence ministry and near the presidential palace in Damascus.
Syrian troops withdrew from Sweida after the truce was introduced however clashes sparked up once more late on Thursday between the tribal Bedouin fighters and the Druze, a part of a non secular minority that additionally has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
Sweida province witnessed intense clashes between authorities forces and armed Druze fighters, adopted by the withdrawal of presidency forces from the province after an settlement with Druze leaders, with town proven right here on 16 July 2025. {Photograph}: Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Israel’s navy carried out contemporary strikes in Sweida province in a single day. Nonetheless, Israel on Friday denied stories on the Syrian state information company that it had performed additional airstrikes close to the Druze-majority metropolis of Sweida late the day gone by, Agence France-Presse (AFP) stories.
“The (Israeli navy) will not be conscious of in a single day strikes in Syria,” a spokesperson informed AFP.
Share
Opening abstract
Whats up and welcome again to the Guardian’s protection of the Center East.
Syrian safety forces are getting ready to redeploy to the Druze-majority Sweida metropolis to quell combating by the Druze and Bedouin tribes, the Syrian inside ministry spokesperson mentioned on Friday.
It comes after the Syrian presidency accused “outlaw forces” – the time period the federal government makes use of to check with Druze factions in Sweida – of violating a renewed ceasefire that was introduced late on Wednesday. The presidency mentioned the forces had engaged in “horrific violence” towards civilians together with “crimes that fully contravene the obligations of mediation, immediately threaten civil peace, and push in direction of chaos and safety collapse”.
Syrian troops on Thursday pulled out of Sweida on the orders of the Islamist-led authorities, following days of lethal clashes that killed practically 600 individuals, in keeping with a struggle monitor.
Israel has mentioned it warned the Syrian authorities to withdraw from the south and that it could not permit the Islamist rulers to construct up on its borders.
The Israeli navy carried out an airstrike on the outskirts of Sweida metropolis as clashes between tribal fighters and Bedouin fighters intensified on Thursday evening. The clashes began a wave of tit-for-tat retaliatory violence earlier on within the day after Syrian authorities forces withdrew from Sweida.
The United States mentioned on Thursday it didn’t help latest Israeli strikes on Syria and had made clear its displeasure, whereas Syrian chief Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of attempting to fracture his nation and promised to guard its Druze minority.
In different developments:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed remorse after Israeli tank hearth killed three individuals at a Catholic church in Gaza on Thursday, blaming a “stray” spherical for the deaths after a cellphone name with US president Donald Trump. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem mentioned 10 others have been additionally wounded within the assault on the Holy Household Church in Gaza Metropolis – the territory’s solely Catholic home of worship – together with parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli.
A fireplace has torn by way of a newly opened shopping center within the japanese Iraqi metropolis of Kut, killing at the least 61 individuals, as determined households looked for lacking relations. Officers mentioned many individuals suffocated in loos, whereas one individual mentioned his 5 relations died in a elevate. The blaze – the most recent in a rustic the place security rules are often uncared for – broke out late on Wednesday, reportedly beginning on the primary flooring earlier than quickly engulfing the five-storey Corniche Hypermarket mall.
Qatar, Egypt and the US offered Israel and Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas with an up to date Gaza ceasefire proposal on Wednesday, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two sources. The 2 most important updates within the newest proposal needed to do with the scope of the Israeli navy’s withdrawal from Gaza throughout a ceasefire and the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be launched for every Israeli hostage, Axios reported.
High European diplomats informed their Iranian counterpart on Thursday they have been decided to reactivate UN sanctions if Tehran doesn’t make progress on a nuclear deal, France’s international ministry mentioned. The diplomats, from Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, informed Iran’s international minister Abbas Araghchi of “their willpower to make use of the ’snapback’ mechanism – which permits for the reimposition of all worldwide sanctions towards Iran – within the absence of concrete progress” in direction of a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme “by the top of the summer time”.
4 individuals have been killed on Thursday in separate Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, the Lebanese well being ministry reported, as Israel mentioned it had focused two Hezbollah members. The assaults are the most recent regardless of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Europe’s largest missiles maker, MBDA, is promoting key parts for bombs which have been shipped of their 1000’s to Israel and utilized in a number of airstrikes the place analysis signifies Palestinian kids and different civilians have been killed. A Guardian investigation with the unbiased newsrooms Disclose and Observe the Cash has examined the availability chain behind the GBU-39 bomb, and the methods through which it has been deployed throughout the battle.
Slovenia introduced on Thursday that it could ban two far-right Israeli ministers from coming into in what authorities mentioned was a primary within the EU. Nationwide Safety minister Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich might be declared “persona non grata,” the Slovenian authorities mentioned in an announcement, accusing them of inciting “excessive violence and critical violations of the human rights of Palestinians” with “their genocidal statements”.
Israel has refused to resume visas for the heads of at the least three UN businesses in Gaza, which the UN humanitarian chief blames on their work attempting to guard Palestinian civilians within the war-torn territory. Visas for the native leaders of the Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, often called OCHA; the human rights company OHCHR; and the company supporting Palestinians in Gaza, Unrwa, haven’t been renewed in latest months, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric confirmed.
Share
