US says ‘specific steps’ agreed to end Syria violence after Israeli strikes hit Damascus


The Israeli military struck the Syrian Ministry of Protection in Damascus and authorities forces in southern Syria on Wednesday, with the continued sectarian preventing within the province of Suwaida principally for the fourth day.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated its forces “are working to save lots of our Druze brothers and get rid of the regime’s gangs.” The Syrian International Ministry accused Israel of “treacherous aggression”.
Greater than 300 folks have been reported in Suwaida since Sunday, when clashes erupted between the Druze militias and the Bedouin tribes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated he was “very involved” about violence within the south, however he believes it would finish inside hours.
“Now we have agreed on particular steps that will convey this worrying and terrifying scenario to finish tonight,” he wrote at X on Wednesday night.
The Syrian International Ministry stated that the nation “welcomes the efforts made by the American and Arab elements” to resolve the present disaster “in peace.
Israel has not but commented on the ceasefire.
The Syrian forces started to withdraw from Suwaida, in keeping with the Syrian authorities information company SANA.
She says that the military is leaving town as a part of an settlement between the Syrian authorities and non secular leaders in Suwaida, following “the completion of the military’s pursuit of outlaw teams.”
The Israeli military started hitting the Syrian safety forces and their weapons on Monday, after they have been deployed within the metropolis of Suwaida for the primary time because the rebels overthrew the Sunni Islamist Bashar al -Assad in December.

Minority teams, together with the Druze – whose faith is taken into account a department of Shiite Islam with its distinctive id and beliefs – doubts that interim President Ahmed Al -Sharra and his authorities, regardless of his pledges to guard them.
Their issues have elevated as a consequence of a number of outbreaks of sectarian violence over the previous eight months, together with one in Could, dozens of individuals have been stated to have been killed in clashes between the Druze, the safety forces, and Islamic fighters allied in Damascus and Sweden.
Within the aftermath of the preventing, the federal government reached an settlement with the Druze militias to make use of the native safety forces within the province of Sweden from its ranks.
Netanyahu stated he’s dedicated to stopping hurt to the Druze in Syria due to their deep relations with those that dwell in Israel and the peak of the Israeli -occupied Golan.
Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz wrote on Wednesday afternoon that “warnings in Damascus” have ended and that the Israeli military “will proceed to work strongly in Sweden to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze till they withdraw utterly.”
Posted later that “painful strikes have began”, over a video displaying It was a television introduction diverted under an office living on the camera, where it hit an Israeli air strike at the near entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense In Amayad Sq., within the middle of Damascus.
Fadi Alaby, the Syrian director in London, who’s visiting Damascus, stated that he was shut when he heard the strategy of Israeli preventing plane.
“Individuals’s faces have been very afraid. Everybody started working [in] Avenue. No person is aware of the place to go. All of a sudden the air strike[s] A few of the busiest areas, together with the Ministry of Protection, started focusing on.
The Israeli military stated it additionally struck a “army goal within the” Presidential Palace “space within the capital, in addition to armored autos loaded with machine weapons and weapons on their approach to Sweden, and taking pictures jobs and arms storage services in southern Syria.
The Syrian Ministry of International Affairs stated that the strikes focused authorities establishments and civil services in Damascus and Sweden and killed “many harmless civilians.”
“This blatant assault, which is a part of a deliberate coverage adopted by the Israeli entity to show tensions, unfold chaos, and undermine safety and stability in Syria, is a flagrant violation of the Constitution of United Nations and Worldwide Humanitarian Legislation,”
In the meantime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK -based monitoring group, acknowledged that the humanitarian scenario within the metropolis of Suwaida has deteriorated shortly.
She cited sources, saying that there are clashes in a number of areas of town and that the tanks attacked the Nationwide Hospital, inflicting panic between dozens of losses from the preventing that’s handled there. In addition they stated that there’s a extreme scarcity of water and medical provides.
Later, the Syrian Ministry of Well being stated that the federal government forces entered the hospital and located “dozens of our bodies” after “exterior teams withdrew,” in keeping with the official information company.
A person named Hosam BBC was informed that he was within the middle of Suwaida and witnessed civilians with fireplace from artillery and snipers.
“I misplaced my neighbor at the moment on the road. One of many snipers shot it. We tried it [get an] ambulance [to take] He informed him to the hospital, however we have been unable to take action. “
SOHR says greater than 300 folks have been killed since Sunday within the province of Suwaida.
Amongst them are 69 Druze fighters and 40 civilians, 27 of whom have been killed by temporary measures by the Ministry of Inside and the forces of the Ministry of Protection, in keeping with the group.
A minimum of 165 members of the federal government forces and 18 tribal fighters have been killed in Badwin within the clashes, whereas 10 members of the federal government forces have been killed in Israeli strikes, they are saying.
The BBC is unable to test the numbers of the SOHR victims.

The preventing between the Badwin tribes and Druze militias in Suwaida is claimed to have arisen from the kidnapping of a Druze service provider on the freeway to Damascus final Friday.
On Sunday, it was stated that the armed Druze fighters have been surrounded and later took alive within the metropolis of Sweida, which he lives in Badwin. The clashes quickly unfold in different components of the province of Suwaida, the place the tribesmen launched assaults on the close by cities and villages.
The Ministry of Inside in Syria later introduced that its forces and the Ministry of Protection forces will intervene and impose the matter, saying that “the harmful escalation comes within the absence of official related establishments.”
Earlier this 12 months, the Israeli Prime Minister demanded the abolition of extreme Sweida and two different southern provinces. He stated that Israel had seen the Sunni President of President Shara, Harir Al -Sham (HTS), as a menace. HTS is a precedent subsidiary of Al Qaeda base that’s nonetheless often known as a terrorist group by the United Nations and the UK, however it’s now not america.
The Israeli military has already carried out a whole lot of strikes all through Syria to destroy army property within the nation because the fall of the Assad regime.
Forces to the devoted buffer zone, that are distributed among the many occupied Golan and Syria highlands, have been despatched, along with many neighboring areas and Mount Hermon Summit.
2025-07-16 21:48:00