The United States said early Saturday that it had negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Syria’s government as new clashes erupted in Syria’s Druze heartland following violence that prompted massive Israeli strikes.
At least 638 people have died since Sunday in violence between the Druze and Bedouins, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, drawing questions over the authority of Syria’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Israel intervened Wednesday with major strikes in the heart of the capital Damascus, including hitting the army’s headquarters.
Tom Barrack, the US pointman on Syria, said in the early hours of Saturday in the Middle East that Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “have agreed to a ceasefire” negotiated by the United States.
Barrack, who is US ambassador to Ankara, said the deal was backed by Turkey, a key supporter of Sharaa, as well as neighbouring Jordan.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbours,” he wrote on X.
The United States on Wednesday announced an earlier deal in which Sharaa pulled government forces out of Sweida, the southern hub of the Druze minority.
Sharaa said the mediation helped avert a “large-scale escalation” with Israel but his office accused Druze fighters of violating it.
Sharaa’s office on Friday evening pledged to deploy fresh forces to the region to break up further clashes in the south, urging “all parties to exercise restraint and prioritise reason”.
Renewed fighting erupted Friday between Bedouin tribal factions and the Druze at the entrance to Sweida, an AFP correspondent said.
About 200 tribal fighters clashed with armed Druze men from the city using machine guns and shells, the AFP correspondent said, while the Syrian Observatory also reported fighting and shelling on neighbourhoods in Sweida.
In the corridors of the Sweida National Hospital, a foul odour emanated from the swollen and disfigured bodies piled up in refrigerated storage units, an AFP correspondent reported.
A small number of doctors and nurses at the hospital worked to treat the wounded arriving from the ongoing clashes, some in the hallways.
Omar Obeid, a doctor at the government hospital, told AFP that the facility has received “more than 400 bodies” since Monday morning.
“There is no more room in the morgue. The bodies are in the street” in front of the hospital, added Obeid, president of the Sweida branch of the Order of Physicians.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration on Friday said that 79,339 people have been displaced since Sunday, including 20,019 on Thursday alone.
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