A senior Syrian government official told The Jerusalem Post and i24NEWS on Monday that Damascus expects Druze armed groups in the southern province of Sweida to move against government forces within days. The official said Israel is encouraging and supporting the operation. The official also claimed that an Israeli helicopter had landed in Sweida and unloaded large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
The official described a sharp rise in Israeli aerial reconnaissance over Sweida and its surroundings, along with additional surveillance flights over Damascus and across southern Syria.
The official said information coming out of Sweida indicates that armed groups may be preparing to strike government troops. According to the same official, their buildup along the lines of friction has stirred concern in Damascus that fighting could flare again in the south. Syrian officials believe that any Druze operation, if it goes ahead, would carry Israeli backing and encouragement.
Sweida is a predominantly Druze province. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024, Damascus has been working to reassert its authority across Syria. The Syrian government assesses that militia movements, reported preparations for an offensive and increased Israeli military activity together could set the stage for a new round of fighting. Damascus regards Israeli military operations and the presence of Israeli forces on Syrian territory as violations of its sovereignty.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told activists at the Likud branch in Yarka, a Druze village in northern Israel, that he had phoned Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during the massacre of Druze in Sweida and told him to stop. Netanyahu has also said he warned Sharaa that if the massacre of Druze civilians did not stop, Israel would intensify its strikes.
"It was a very short, very sharp conversation, and the massacre stopped," Netanyahu said.
