US-brokered ceasefire too late? Death toll in Syria's Druze-Bedouin bloodbath rises to 718, at least 165 'summarily executed'

In Syria, at least 718 people have been killed in Syria's Sweida province in the nearly one week of violence in the heartland of the Druze minority, a war monitor reported on Saturday (Jul 19). Publishing the updated toll, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 146 Druze fighters and 245 civilians were among those killed since Sunday. Of the dead, 165 were “were summarily executed by personnel of the defence and interior ministries,” said the Britain-based war monitor. In addition, the violence has also claimed the lives of 287 government troops and 18 Bedouin fighters, plus three Bedouin "who were summarily executed by Druze fighters", it reported. Another fifteen government soldiers were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

This comes as early on Saturday, the United States announced that it had brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Syria's interim government after a week of deadly violence in Syria's Druze-majority south.

US-brokered truce

The truce comes amid an eruption of violence between Druze and Bedouin communities in the southern province of Sweida, which has left at least 638 people dead and displaced nearly 80,000, according to monitoring groups and UN agencies. Fierce street battles, artillery shelling, and targeted abductions have gripped Sweida since Sunday, overwhelming hospitals, according to reports.

US special envoy Tom Barrack, currently serving as ambassador to Turkey, said early Saturday that both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa "have agreed to a ceasefire" negotiated by the United States following days of behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

The deal, Barrack said, was jointly backed by Turkey and Jordan. "We call upon Druze, Bedouins and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbours," Barrack said in a statement on X. Previously, on Wednesday (Jul 9) the US, as per AFP, had announced an earlier deal in which the Sharaa government pulled out forces from Sweida.