Israel’s Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, appealed to the international community Tuesday after presenting new testimony alleging rape, torture, executions and kidnappings carried out against Druze residents in Syria’s Sweida province last July.
Tarif spoke at a UN event in Geneva unveiling the Hearing Their Voices initiative, a partnership with UNITAR and the Rwanda genocide memorial that allows survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to share their accounts safely through advanced artificial intelligence that removes identifying details.
Druze teen details Syrian jihadists' rape in Swedia: 'dragged me into the freezer'
(Video: Generative AI for Good)
Among the testimonies shown to diplomats and human rights experts was the recorded account of a 14-year-old Druze girl, identified as Nour, who said she was raped by three jihadists — two wearing Syrian army uniforms and one identified as an Islamic State fighter. She described assailants storming her family’s home, threatening relatives and beating her as she tried to resist. “More than 20 gunmen were in the house, and they threatened my family. No one dared move,” she said.
Tarif called on the world to recognize the Sweida killings as a war crime carried out by the regime of Ahmad al-Sharaa. “I stand here on behalf of hundreds of thousands, on behalf of burned homes, raped women, murdered children,” he said. “What happened in Sweida was not an attack but a deliberate attempt to erase the Druze community.” He urged the creation of a humanitarian corridor into the Druze stronghold in southern Syria, an end to the siege on its villages and the release of hundreds of Druze hostages.
Footage shown at the event included scenes of executions allegedly carried out by al-Sharaa’s forces inside a Sweida hospital in July.
Tarif told Reuters that the United States must “fulfill its duty” to protect minority communities in Syria to help stabilize the country. He said American involvement on that front could reduce Israel’s need to conduct military operations in Syria. “We hope the United States, President Trump and America as a major power will guarantee the rights of all minorities in Syria and prevent future massacres,” he said.
Another testimony came from Fauzia Amin Sido, a Yazidi woman from Iraq who was abducted by Islamic State at age 11, sold to a Palestinian supporter of Hamas and Islamic State in Gaza and held as a slave for nearly a decade before being rescued in an international mission in which Israel and the IDF played a central role. “They forced us to convert and took us to an underground prison. Later they sold me in a slave market,” she said.
The evening was led by Shiran Melamedovsky-Somekh, CEO of Generative AI for Good, which developed the secure system used to mask survivors’ voices, faces and speech patterns. “Technology can be a weapon, but it can also save lives,” she said. “This tool gives survivors their power back.”
Testimonies from Ukraine, Rwanda and other conflict zones were also presented, along with remarks from Chen Goldstein-Almog, who was kidnapped with her children on Oct. 7 and freed in the first hostage deal.