(21 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nahtah, Daraa, Syria – 21 July 2025
1. Evacuated Bedouin families being given food and refreshments
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ali al-Hawarein, evacuee from Sweida:
"My brother, his wife, his kids, among them children, my wife, my mother, my daughter, and my sister gathered in one area, two men approached them, and they were all shot. This is what I was told by the only survivor, my daughter, who’s a college student. Their attacks on us are unjustified, there’s no justification, whether it’s hatred or displacing the area of Sunni tribes. The government forces were great to us, they did everything they could. But I don’t think they can keep us safe from the lawless gangs that are in Sweida, and I believe these groups are Hijri’s (Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri) gangs.
3. Emergency response workers and families
4. Elderly woman walking
5. Various of girl playing with sand
6. Evacuated children sat in shade
STORYLINE:
The Syrian government on Monday started evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside the city of Sweida, where Druze militiamen and Bedouin fighters have clashed for over a week.
In Daraa province, Ali al-Hawarein was among hundreds bussed out of Sweida, and is now sheltering in the town of Nahtah at a school.
A medical NGO checked on the displaced people, as they sat unsure of when they will return home.
Al-Hawarein was a day labourer but also farmed on some land he owned.
He’s been separated from his immediate family and relatives, who his daughter told him were rounded up and killed by Druze factions.
“Their attacks on us are unjustified, including the displacing the area of Sunni tribes," he said, slamming the Druze factions’ revenge attacks that displaced many Bedouin families.
He is doubtful that the government can keep them safe going forward.
Ahmed al-Dalati, the commander of internal security forces in Sweida Governorate, told state news agency SANA that the initiative will also allow displaced civilians from Sweida to return, as the fighting has largely stopped and efforts for a complete ceasefire are ongoing.
The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile postwar transition.
The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins.
The U.N. International Organization for Migration said some 128,571 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks a week ago.
Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins.
AP video by Ghaith Alsayed
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