Syrian government and Druze minority leaders announce a new ceasefire as Israel continues strikes

DAMASCUS Syria AP Syrian administration agents and leaders in the Druze religious minority stated a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel It was not right away clear if the agreement revealed by Syria s Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader would hold A previous ceasefire informed Tuesday briskly fell apart and a prominent Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri disavowed the new agreement Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement Rare Israeli airstrikes in the heart of Damascus The announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus an escalation in a campaign that it mentioned was intended to defend the Druze and push Islamic militants away from its edge The Druze form a substantial district in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority often serving in the military The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida Regime forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze The violence appeared to be the greater part serious threat yet to efforts by Syria s new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader Bashar Assad in December ending a nearly -year civil war The new primarily Sunni Muslim bureaucrats have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities especially after clashes between executive forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belongs were killed No official casualty figures have been distributed for the latest fighting since Monday when the Interior Ministry commented people had been killed The U K -based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated more than people had been killed as of Wednesday morning including four children eight women and soldiers and shield forces Israel threatens further escalation Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting establishment troops and convoys heading into Sweida and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assad s fall That strike killed three people and injured Syrian leaders stated Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the painful blows have begun Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria s new leaders saying it doesn t want Islamist militants near its borders Israeli forces have seized a U N -patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the perimeter with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria Kats noted in a message that the Israeli army will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations disclosed the army was preparing for a multitude of scenarios and that a brigade normally comprising thousands of soldiers was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights Syria s Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating the ceasefire agreement reached Tuesday Druze fear for the lives of relatives in Sweida Reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate amid communication blackouts In Jaramana near the Syrian capital Evelyn Azzam revealed she feared that her husband Robert Kiwan was dead The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb but Kiwan would commute to Sweida for work and got trapped there when the clashes erupted Azzam announced she was on the phone with Kiwan when guard forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias When her husband s colleague raised his voice she heard a gunshot Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal They shot my husband in the hip from what I could gather she announced struggling to hold back tears The ambulance took him to the hospital Since then we have no idea what has happened A Syrian Druze from Sweida living in the United Arab Emirates announced her mother father and sister were hiding in a basement in their home near the hospital where they could hear the sound of shelling and bullets outside She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her family might be targeted She had struggled to reach them but when she did she reported I heard them cry I have never heard them this way before Another Druze woman living in the UAE with family members in Sweida who also spoke on condition of anonymity revealed a cousin described her that a house where their relatives lived had been burned down with everyone inside it It reminded her of when the Islamic State extremist group attacked Sweida in she disclosed Her uncle was among a large number of civilians there who had taken up arms to fight back while Assad s forces stood aside He was killed in the fighting It s the same right now she narrated The Associated Press The Druze fighters she revealed are just people who are protecting their province and their families The Druze religious sect began as a th-century offshoot of Ismailism a branch of Shiite Islam More than half of the roughly million Druze worldwide live in Syria The majority of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel including in the Golan Heights which Israel captured from Syria in the Mideast War and annexed in Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics Other videos demonstrated Druze fighters beating captured authorities forces and posing by their bodies AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses The observatory announced at least people were killed in field executions Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a declaration Wednesday condemning the violations and vowing that perpetrators would be punished These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances and entirely contradicts the principles that the Syrian state is built on the report read Druze in the Golan gathered along the boundary fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that Washington is very concerned about the Israel-Syria violence which he attributed to a misunderstanding and has been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore calm