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The Druze Massacre in Syria Proves We Must Find Ways to Protect Minorities in the Middle East
Smoke rises while Syrian security forces sit in the back of a truck as Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in southern Syria, in the heart of the Sweida province — the homeland of the Druze community. The people in Sweida are still paying decades after Western powers carved out artificial nation-states across the Middle East.
Hundreds of bodies — men, women, children, and the elderly — have recently been brought to the only remaining functional hospital in Sweida. Some corpses were just left in the street due to lack of space. Doctors were brutally murdered. One was reportedly killed while performing surgery, another shot in front of his children. Eyewitnesses report that forces carried out executions, desecrated corpses, looted homes, and set neighborhoods on fire. In a symbolic and degrading act, Druze religious leaders had their mustaches forcibly shaved — an insult reminiscent of the humiliations endured by Polish Jews following the Nazi invasion in 1939.
What began as a local skirmish between Sunni Bedouin tribes and armed Druze fighters quickly escalated into a full-scale onslaught by forces loyal to Syria’s de facto ruler, Ahmad al-Sharaa, that ordered the uprising to be crushed with an iron fist. A whole community was plunged into anarchy and targeted violence.
Some 125,000 Druze live in Israel today. They are loyal citizens who serve in the IDF, lead municipalities, and are integrated in every aspect of Israeli public life. Many are closely following the events across the border. Some young Druze Israelis even attempted to cross into Syria to aid their brethren, risking confrontations with IDF soldiers. Israeli Druze leaders, along with security officials, have worked hard to contain the situation and prevent further escalation.
The US recently brokered a ceasefire between Israel and the al-Sharaa regime, with backing from Jordan and Turkey. Yet what is being celebrated as a diplomatic breakthrough risks becoming a moral failure if it is not followed by a concrete plan to protect minorities.
A tweet from US Ambassador Tom Barrack — “We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity…” — reveals a deep misunderstanding of Syrian realities. There is no such thing as a “united Syrian identity” — there never was, and there likely never will be. Calling on targeted minorities to disarm, with no clear mechanism for their protection, is to abandon them to slaughter.
Like Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, Syria is a colonial fabrication — an artificial state imposed on a patchwork of sects, tribes, and rival ethnicities. King Faisal I, a Hashemite with no local roots, came from the Hejaz and was installed on Syria’s throne by French decree. From that day to this, Syria has never known lasting stability. An Alawite minority, making up roughly 15% of the population, has ruled through brute force over Sunnis, Kurds, Assyrians, Christians, and Druze alike. There is no “Syrian people” — only a crumbling mosaic of communities clinging to ancient survival strategies.
The only viable way to guarantee the safety of the Druze and other minorities is to support, openly or discreetly, the establishment of a Druze autonomous zone in Jabal al-Druze. Such an entity existed between 1921 and 1936, and similar proposals were floated in Israel during the late 1960s. A fractured multi-tribal state cannot ensure safety for anyone — but a decentralized Syrian confederation, in the style of Switzerland or the UAE, just might.
The State of Israel, which refrained from sending ground troops into Syria but acted in the air to defend the Druze, must now take a clear political stance: no more clinging to the failed ideal of “one Syria.” Instead, Israel should promote a viable cantonal solution that allows minorities to govern themselves securely.
The West, having carelessly created Syria, must understand: asking the Druze to “unite with the Sunnis” under an imagined national identity is to repeat a century old political and moral crime. Ambassador Barrack’s tweet, urging minorities to lay down their arms and rally around a fictitious “unified Syrian identity” echoes the very illusion that plunged Syria, Iraq, and Libya into chaos. If this is the best path Western diplomacy has to offer, then we are on the wrong track.
We, the Jews of Israel, cannot stand idly by while our Druze brothers and sisters are massacred just 40 miles from our border. This is not just a matter of solidarity, it is a matter of conscience. A people that has endured genocide cannot allow another to fall victim to mass slaughter, especially a community to whom the State of Israel owes so much — on the battlefield, in civil society, and in our shared vision of genuine partnership. Silence now will be remembered not only as a moral failure, but as a betrayal to its own citizens.
Itamar Tzur is the author of The Invention of the Palestinian Narrative and an Israeli scholar specializing in Middle Eastern history. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Jewish History and a Master’s degree with honors in Middle Eastern studies. As a senior member of the “Forum Kedem for Middle Eastern Studies and Public Diplomacy,” he leverages his academic expertise to deepen understanding of regional dynamics and historical contexts.
The post The Druze Massacre in Syria Proves We Must Find Ways to Protect Minorities in the Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Some 800,000 Palestinians Evacuate from Gaza City as Israeli Defense Minister Says Operation to Ramp Up
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that more than 750,000 Palestinian residents of Gaza City have fled to safe areas as the IDF ramps up its operation against one of the last major Hamas strongholds in the enclave. The military subsequently revised the figure up to 800,000.
Katz said Israel ramped up the attacks, proceeding to what he called the “decisive” phase of its operation.
“Autonomous explosive-laden military vehicles are being deployed in advance of the troops to defuse explosives, and the fire cover to protect the troops from the air and ground is heavy and strong,” he posted to his account on the X platform.
“Gaza City is emptying because its residents realize the military operation is escalating and move south for their own safety,” said Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman.
The Israeli military was in control of over half of Gaza City, sources familiar with the matter told Israeli media on Saturday.
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Trump Says ‘We Will Get It Done’ in the Middle East
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Sunday about reaching a deal to end the war in Gaza, saying there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East,” ahead of talks on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump did not provide specific details of a prospective ceasefire-for-hostages agreement in Gaza, but Vice President JD Vance told “Fox News Sunday” that top US officials are immersed in “very complicated” negotiations with Israeli and Arab leaders.
“We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done,” Trump said in a Truth Social post that was issued as he rode in his motorcade to his suburban Virginia golf club.
Trump will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House with the aim of reaching a framework for a deal, according to administration officials.
Trump said on Friday talks on Gaza with Middle Eastern nations were intense and that Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants were aware of the discussions, which he said would continue as long as required.
Vance described himself as “cautiously hopeful” about reaching a deal.
“I feel more optimistic about where we are right now than where we have been at any point in the last few months, but let’s be realistic, these things can get derailed at the very last minute,” he said.
He said the plan has three main components: Returning all hostages, ending the Hamas threat to Israel, and escalating humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“So I think we’re close to accomplishing all three of those objectives,” Vance said.
When international leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York this week, the US unveiled a 21-point Middle East peace plan to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
That plan calls for the return of all hostages, living and dead, no further Israeli attacks on Qatar and a new dialogue between Israel and Palestinians for “peaceful coexistence,” a White House official said.
Israel angered Qataris by launching an airstrike against Hamas targets in their capital Doha on September 9.
A Hamas representative said on Saturday that the group had not seen the US plan.
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Hamas Says It Lost Contact with Two Hostages as Tanks Thrust Deeper into Gaza City
A mobile artillery unit fires towards Gaza near the border, in Israel, September 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Hamas said on Sunday it had lost contact with two Israeli hostages held in Gaza City, and called on Israel to pull troops back and suspend air strikes for 24 hours so fighters could retrieve the captives.
The fate of the two hostages, which has strong domestic resonance in Israel, could cast a shadow over a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump on Monday.
Israel has launched a massive ground assault on Gaza City, flattening whole districts and ordering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee to tented camps, in what Netanyahu says is a bid to destroy Hamas once and for all in its final bastion.
Nevertheless, the past few days have seen increasing talk of steps towards a diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year-old war. Trump said on Friday that a deal on Gaza seemed likely.
HAMAS SAYS IT HAS NOT RECEIVED NEW PEACE PROPOSAL
Hamas said earlier on Sunday that it had not yet received a new proposal to end the war. Netanyahu says Hamas must lay down its arms or be defeated. The militant group has so far said it will never give up its weapons as long as Palestinians are struggling for a state.
The Hamas military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, called on the Israeli military to pull troops back from the Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa districts southeast of Gaza City’s center, and suspend flights over the area for 24 hours from 1500 GMT so it could reach the two trapped hostages.
The Israeli military did not directly comment on the request but made clear it had no plans to halt its advances, issuing a statement ordering all residents of parts of Gaza City including the Sabra district to leave. It said it was about to attack Hamas targets and raze buildings in the area.
Gaza residents and medics said Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Sabra, Tel Al-Hawa and nearby Sheikh Radwan and Al-Naser neighbourhoods, closing in on the heart of the city and western areas where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.
RESCUERS UNABLE TO REACH TRAPPED RESIDENTS
Local health authorities said they had been unable to respond to dozens of desperate calls from trapped residents.
Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international organizations, to let it rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The families of the two hostages identified by Hamas have requested that their names not be published by the media.
Hamas precipitated the war when it attacked Israeli territory in October, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages. Forty-eight hostages are still in Gaza, of whom Netanyahu says 20 are believed still alive.
The Israeli military says that Hamas, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, no longer has governing capacity and that its military force has been reduced to a guerrilla movement.
The Israeli military launched its long-threatened ground offensive on Gaza City on September 16 after weeks of intensifying strikes on the urban center.
Over the past 24 hours, the air force had struck 140 military targets across Gaza, including militants and what it described as military infrastructure, the military said.
The World Food Program estimates that between 350,000 and 400,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since last month, although hundreds of thousands remain. The Israeli military estimates that around a million Palestinians were in Gaza City in August.