Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed Thursday afternoon at a gathering with the Druze community in Yarka that he had spoken with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
"It was a very brief, very blunt conversation, and the massacre [of the Druze] stopped," he said. "I will do whatever it takes to protect our Druze brothers. There is still work to be done, and I can't reveal everything."
Netanyahu at a gathering in Yarka
(Photo: Elad Gershgoren)
Netanyahu was the one who called al-Sharaa. His message was that if the massacre of the Druze did not stop, Israel would intensify its strikes against the Syrian regime. The killing eventually stopped.
In July 2025, between July 13 and 21, fighting between armed Bedouin groups and Syrian regime forces left more than 3,572 people dead. Hundreds of people were summarily executed by Syrian security forces, while approximately 225,000 were displaced from their homes.
Human rights organizations documented the abduction of more than 100 Druze women and girls by armed groups affiliated with the Syrian government and reported systematic rape and sexual violence. In at least three documented cases, women were raped before being executed.
A U.S.-brokered ceasefire was reached July 19 after an earlier attempt collapsed, but it proved fragile. Renewed clashes erupted in the following months, and in February 2026, the Syrian regime imposed a siege on Sweida, the center of the country's Druze community, blocking food and medical supplies to the entire province.
Many towns were left deserted, dozens of abducted men and women remain missing and no one has been brought to justice.
At the height of the clashes, Israel also intervened, striking Syrian regime targets in Sweida and Damascus to protect the Druze. Graphic footage from the fighting continued to emerge on social media for months, including videos showing executions, humiliation and religiously motivated killings.
Al-Sharaa condemned the massacres carried out by his forces against the Druze and said he considered the community "an integral part" of Syria.
He pledged to investigate the atrocities, saying that "criminal and unlawful acts" committed during the clashes were "completely contrary to the principles on which the Syrian state is being built."
He also promised that those responsible, "whether individuals or organizations operating outside the law, will be held legally accountable."
First published: 17:31, 10.15.26