In a desperate and emotional plea to the world, Hala Saraya, a pharmacist from Sweida, Syria, recounted the brutal killing of seven members of her family and the violent assault on her Druze community by Syrian forces aligned with Bedouin fighters. Speaking from her home, where she remains trapped in fear, Hala urged international attention to the atrocities unfolding in her city.
"We are innocent and very polite citizens," she said. "But we don't know why they killed us. They killed all of us."
According to Hala, the violence began suddenly on a Sunday evening, when the official army—referred to locally as the al-Golani militia, a nod to Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Golani—launched an unprovoked assault on civilians.
“From Sunday evening … the army and the militia of al-Golani attacked the innocent people in Sweida,” she said. “We don’t have weapons. We are civilized people.”
At first, many thought the militia were coming to protect them from Bedouin attacks, but by Wednesday, the situation escalated in brutal carnage. That morning, at 7 a.m., al-Golani forces entered her relatives’ home under the pretense of searching for weapons. “They said, ‘We will not do anything bad to you,’” Hala recalled. But after removing all the men from the house, “they took them … to a place near their house actually. And they killed them immediately.”
Seven members of the al-Saraya family were murdered. The bodies were discovered the following day, July 17. “It was a horrible way,” she said. “Not just a weapon on you. It was a horrible way.”
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American Syrian Druze Hosam Ghassan Saraya (left) and his brother Karim, both killed by Syrian forces
(Photo: Courtesy)
Among the dead was Hala’s cousin, Hussam Ghassan Saraya, an American citizen from Oklahoma. “He was a quiet boy, a genius,” she said. “He studied accounting and finance in Oklahoma. He was not a soldier. No way to work with weapons.”
She said about 20 people had been in the house when the attack occurred. Women were terrorized, and belongings were looted. “They stole whatever they wanted from the house,” she said.
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Hala described the broader death toll in Sweida as staggering. “Until now, it’s more than 1,000 killed persons,” she said. “Many of families [had] all of the members of it killed.”
Now trapped in her home, Hala says she cannot even step outside. “There is no safe way. You are in a danger zone from all the borders.”
She called for urgent international intervention. “We need UN protection. We can’t fight more,” she said. “It’s not just a post on Facebook … we need real action to save us.”
She made a final, heartfelt plea to the world: “All we need is peace. Save our children. Save us. Save all of us.”
Richard Grenell, Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions of the United States, posted on X concerning the murder of the American citizen Hussam Ghassan Saraya and stated that a member of Congress and the State Department is confirming details.