In a statement Monday, the Syrian Interior Ministry described the incident as “a serious threat to civil peace and public security and is against law and the values of coexistence and national unity,” expressing its “full respect for the rights of all Syrians.” Yet the government renewed its calls for local militias, including the Druze of Sweida, to relinquish their weapons to the newly formed state—a continuing point of tension as interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa tries to consolidate power.
In Sweida, the site of recent fighting, al-Sharaa has struggled to bring various armed groups under the umbrella of his transitional government. There and elsewhere, leaders of Syria’s Druze—a distinct religious and Arab ethnic group spread across multiple Middle Eastern countries—have largely resisted Damascus’ demands to lay down their arms, particularly amid concerns that doing so would make them vulnerable to attacks by rogue security forces.
This latest violent episode affirmed those fears. In a statement, the Men of Dignity—one of the largest Druze groups in Sweida—said that it held the government “primarily responsible” for the situation, citing “its failure to maintain security, its silence in the face of repeated violations and its tolerance of affiliated factions interfering and siding with one group over another.”
“Sweida was and will remain a land of dignity and coexistence,” the faction added. “It will not be drawn into any sedition, but at the same time, we will not allow it to become an open arena for settling scores.”
Syria has a Druze population of around 700,000 people, the majority of whom are concentrated in the south. Although many Druze communities celebrated Assad’s ouster in December, the resulting power vacuum has also left them and other minority groups distinctly vulnerable as long-simmering tensions erupt. In March, clashes in Alawite-majority areas along Syria’s Mediterranean coast—including reports of widespread revenge killings—left more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians, dead in just three days. And in May, a video of a Druze man allegedly cursing the Prophet Mohammed—which Druze leaders said was faked—circulated online, setting off fighting in Damascus and Sweida that left at least 100 people dead, according to the SOHR war monitor.
“It’s a very delicate balance for a lot of these groups that have been fighting in the civil war since 2011. They don’t subordinate themselves to a new government that might oppress them,” Ido Levy, an analyst with the Washington Institute, told TMD. “They worry about their own ability to live freely and be free from persecution.”
In some cases, al-Sharaa’s government forces have participated in the violence, generating fear that the rebel commander-turned-president is unwilling—or simply unable—to rein in the extremist factions ostensibly under his control. And his own jihadist roots have reinforced that notion. Before forming the new government, al-Sharaa led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—an Islamist group created as an offshoot of al-Qaeda–in the takeover of Damascus.
Since taking power, Al-Sharaa has successfully pulled off a rebrand: He has espoused a moderate vision for Syria and endeared himself to several Western leaders, including Donald Trump. The U.S. president hailed his Syrian counterpart as a “young attractive guy” with a “very strong past” after meeting him in May, and, earlier this month, moved to lift most Assad-era sanctions on the country. Last week, the Trump administration also reversed the HTS’ foreign terrorist organization designation.
But Syria’s Druze remain skeptical that al-Sharaa and the factions under his command will live up to their unifying rhetoric. “No matter how good Ahmed al-Sharaa looks in a suit, how much U.S. officials say he’s the real deal, etc., he still comes from the background of Orthodox Sunni thinking about other groups,” Steven A. Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told TMD. “And as a result, there’s likely to be efforts—if not by al-Sharaa himself but people around him—to repress the Druze and their identity.”
Complicating the situation further is the Druze’s historic connection to Israel, which has on multiple occasions intervened in Syria on their behalf. On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck several tanks in southern Syria “in an effort to prevent their arrival” to the site of fighting in Sweida. It remains unclear whether the attacks targeted the Syrian government or local militias, but Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the operation was designed to send “a message and a clear warning” to Damascus: “We will not allow harm to the Druze in Syria.”
Israel is home to 150,000 Druze, with the men serving in the IDF. This dynamic has forged a strong relationship between Jerusalem and Druze communities in neighboring states, who have in some cases even appealed to the Jewish state for help. But Israel’s operations in Syria also serve pragmatic purposes as it seeks to prevent the new government from establishing a military foothold near the border. Since Assad’s fall, the IDF has struck arms depots, destroyed suspected chemical weapons sites, and deployed ground troops to occupy the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
To be sure, Syria’s Sunni-led government is a cause for concern for Israel. But the threat of non-state actors is perhaps even greater. Despite the collapse of the Iran-allied Assad regime, the threat of groups backed by the Islamic Republic persists on Israel’s border. Twice this month, the IDF has conducted raids into southern Syria to capture Iran-linked cells near the Golan Heights. And the threat of other extremist groups, including ISIS, is omnipresent. According to the SOHR, the terrorist organization has carried out at least 120 operations across multiple provinces of Syria since early 2025, leading to more than 50 deaths.
Israel and Syria have in recent months held high-level talks with the aim of reaching a pact that Jerusalem hopes will create lasting security along its northeast border. But in the meantime, it’s taking the situation into its own hands. “The Israelis are deeply, deeply concerned—and I think rightly so—about groups coming across their border like they did on October 7,” Cook said. “So the Israelis want to extend their buffer zone until they can come to some sort of ironclad agreement with the Syrian government.”
