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Why did Israel bomb Syria? A look at the Druze and the violence in Suwayda

Why did Israel bomb Syria? A look at the Druze and the violence in Suwayda

Israel has launched a series of intense strikes on Damascus, Syria’s capital, intensifying a campaign it says is in support of an Arab minority group. Syria, on Wednesday, strongly condemned Israeli attacks, denouncing the strikes as a “dangerous escalation.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Israel of pursuing a “deliberate policy” to  “inflame tensions, spread chaos and undermine security and stability in Syria”. The strikes killed three people and injured 34, according to Syrian officials. Here is what we know: What happened in Syria on Wednesday? Israel carried out a series of air strikes on central Damascus, hitting a compound that houses the Ministry of Defence and areas near the presidential palace. The Israeli military also struck targets in southern Syria, where fighting between Druze groups, Bedouin tribes, and Syrian security forces has continued for more than four days. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 250 people have been killed in Suwayda province during the clashes. Israel, which already occupies the Syrian Golan Heights, says its operations aim to protect the Druze minority – whom it considers potential allies – and to strike pro-government forces accused of attacking them. Syria rejected this and called the attack a “flagrant assault”. Where did the attacks happen? The main attacks focused on central Damascus: the Defence Ministry, military headquarters and areas surrounding the presidential palace. Additional strikes were carried out further south. Advertisement Syria’s Defence Ministry headquarters: The compound was struck several times, with two large strikes about 3pm (12:00pmGMT), including its entrance, causing structural damage and smoke rising visibly over the city. “Israeli warplanes [were] circling the skies over the Syrian capital,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said, reporting from Damascus. “There was panic in the city,” she added. Near the presidential palace (Umayyad Square): Strikes also hit areas immediately around the presidential palace in central Damascus. Another air strike landed near the presidential palace in Damascus. In a post on social media, Israel said “a military target was struck in the area of the Syrian regime’s Presidential Palace in the Damascus area”. In the south: Israeli drones also targeted Syria’s city of Suwayda, a mainly Druze city close to the border with Jordan. (Al Jazeera) Why did Israel bomb Syria? Israel’s air strikes followed days of deadly clashes in Suwayda between Syrian government forces and local Druze fighters. The violence began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes. When government troops intervened to restore order, they ended up clashing with Druze groups – and, in some cases, reportedly targeted civilians. The Druze, a small but influential minority in both Syria and Israel, are seen in Israel as loyal allies, with many serving in the Israeli military. A ceasefire declared on Tuesday quickly collapsed, and fighting resumed the next day. Suwayda’s Druze appear divided. One leader, Yasser Jarbou, declared that a ceasefire had been agreed with the Syrian government. Another, Hikmat al-Hijri, rejected any ceasefire. And many Druze in Syria do not want Israel to intervene on their behalf. Israel has its own considerations and has been attempting to expand its control in southern Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December. Israel has shunned any attempts to come to a security agreement with Syria and has instead repeatedly bombed the country this year. Many analysts believe that Israel would prefer a weak Syria over a country it believes could potentially threaten it should it grow strong. Intensifying attacks Israel, citing a commitment to protect the Druze and prevent hostile forces from gaining ground near its borders, warned Wednesday it would escalate its operations unless Syrian troops withdrew from Suwayda. The province sits near both the Israeli and Jordanian borders, making it a key strategic zone. Advertisement “This is a significant escalation,” Khodr, Al Jazeera’s correspondent, said. “This is the Israeli leadership giving a very, very direct message to Syria’s new authorities that they will intensify such strikes … if the government does not withdraw its troops from southern Syria.” As part of its campaign, Israeli forces struck the General Staff compound in Damascus, which it said was being used by senior commanders to direct operations against Druze forces in Suwayda. Israeli officials said the strikes were also aimed at blocking the buildup of hostile forces near Israel’s frontier. Shortly after the Damascus attacks, Syria’s Ministry of Interior announced a new ceasefire in Suwayda. According to state media, government troops began withdrawing from the area. Syrian response Syria condemned the Israeli strikes as a violation of international law, a stance echoed by several Arab governments. Syria’s new government has been trying to assert control, but it has struggled to do so in Suwayda, in part due to repeated Israeli threats against any government military presence in the province. “The Israelis are not going to allow the Syrian government to spread its authority all over the territory,” said Ammar Kahf, executive director of Omran Center for Strategic Studies, who is based in Damascus. With the fall of al-Assad’s government and the infancy of a new one, Israel is trying to impose its will on the new leadership, he said. “We are still in the early stages, but this requires all Syrians to come together. For a foreign government to come in and destroy public property and destroy safety and security is something that’s unexplainable,” Kahf told Al Jazeera. The Syrian government has now announced that army forces will begin withdrawing from the city of Suwayda as part of a ceasefire agreement. It did not mention any pullout of other government security forces. 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‘The love he gave’: Family vows to keep Sayfollah Musallet’s memory alive

‘The love he gave’: Family vows to keep Sayfollah Musallet’s memory alive

Sayfollah Musallet was a brother, a son and an ambitious young man who was just at the beginning of his life. That is the message his family has repeated since July 11, when the 20-year-old United States citizen was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the village of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank. That message, they hope, will prevent the Florida-born Sayfollah from becoming “just another number” in the growing list of Palestinian Americans whose killings never find justice. That’s why his cousin, Fatmah Muhammad, took a moment amid her grief on Wednesday to remember the things she loved about Sayfollah. The two united over a passion for food, and Muhammad, a professional baker, remembers how carefully Sayfollah would serve the delicate knafeh pastry she sold through the ice cream shop he ran in Tampa. “Just in the way he plated my dessert, he made it look so good,” Muhammad, 43, recalled. “I even told him he did a better job than me.” “That really showed the type of person he was,” she added. “He wanted to do things with excellence.” ‘The love he gave all of us’ Born and raised in Port Charlotte, a coastal community in south central Florida, Sayfollah – nicknamed Saif – maintained a deep connection to his ancestral roots abroad. He spent a large portion of his teenage years in the occupied West Bank, where his two brothers and sister also lived. There, his parents, who own a home near Sinjil, hoped he could better connect with his culture and language. But after finishing high school, Sayfollah was eager to return to the US to try his hand at entrepreneurship. Last year, he, his father and his cousins opened the dessert shop in Tampa, Florida, playfully named Ice Screamin. Sayfollah Musallet poses for a family photo with his grandmother and uncle [Photo courtesy of family] But the ice cream shop was just the beginning. Sayfollah’s ambition left a deep impression on Muhammad. Advertisement “He had his vision to expand the business, to multiply it by many,” she said, her voice at times shaking with grief. “This at 20, when most kids are playing video games.” “And the crazy thing is, any goal that he set his mind to, he always did it,” she added. “He always exceeded everyone’s expectations, especially with the love he gave all of us.” Sayfollah’s aunt, 58-year-old Samera Musallet, also remembers his dedication to his family. She described Sayfollah as a loving young man who never let his aunts pay for anything in his presence – and who always insisted on bringing dessert when he came for dinner. At the same time, Samera said he was still youthful and fun-loving: He liked to watch comedy movies, shop for clothes and make late-night trips to the WaWa convenience store. One of her fondest memories came when Sayfollah was only 14, and they went together to a baseball game featuring the Kansas City Royals and the Tampa Bay Rays. “When we got there, he could smell the popcorn and all the hot dogs. He bought everything he could see and said, ‘We’re going to share!’” she told Al Jazeera. “After he ate all that junk food, we turned around, and he was sleeping. I woke him up when the game was over, and he goes: ‘Who won?’” ‘I really want to get married’ Another one of his aunts, 52-year-old Katie Salameh, remembers that Sayfollah’s mind had turned to marriage in the final months of his young life As the Florida spring gave way to summer, Sayfollah had announced plans to return to the West Bank to see his mother and siblings. But he confided to Salameh that he had another reason for returning. “The last time I saw him was we had a family wedding, and that was the weekend of Memorial Day [in May],” Salameh told Al Jazeera. “I asked him: ‘Are you so excited to see your siblings and your mom?’ He said, ‘Oh my god, I’m so excited.’ Then he goes, ‘I really want to get married. I’m going to look for a bride when I’m there.’” To keep the ice cream shop running smoothly, Sayfollah had arranged a switch with his father: He would return to the West Bank while his father would travel to Tampa to mind the business. But that decision would unwittingly put Sayfollah’s father more than 10,000 kilometres away from his son when violent Israeli settlers surrounded him, as witnesses and his family would later recount. Israeli authorities said the attack in Sinjil began with rock-throwing and “violent clashes … between Palestinians and Israeli civilians”, a claim Sayfollah’s family and witnesses have rejected. Advertisement Instead, they said Sayfollah was trying to protect his family’s land when he was encircled by a “mob of settlers” who beat him. Even when an ambulance was called, Sayfollah’s family said the settlers blocked the paramedics from reaching his broken body. Sayfollah’s younger brother would ultimately help carry his dying brother to emergency responders. The settlers also fatally shot Mohammed al-Shalabi, a 23-year-old Palestinian man, who witnesses said was left bleeding for hours. “His phone was on, and he wasn’t responding,” his mother, Joumana al-Shalabi, told reporters. “He was missing for six hours. They found him martyred under the tree. They beat him and shot him with bullets.” Palestinians cannot legally possess firearms in the occupied West Bank, but Israeli settlers can. The Israeli government itself has encouraged the settlers to bear arms, including through the distribution of rifles to civilians. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded the killings of at least 964 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023. And the violence appears to be on the rise. The OHCHR noted that there was a 13-percent increase in the number of killings during the first six months of 2025, compared with the same period last year. ‘Pain I can’t

‘It’s just better!’ Trump says he has convinced Coca-Cola to use cane sugar

‘It’s just better!’ Trump says he has convinced Coca-Cola to use cane sugar

Beverage giant declines to either confirm or deny change to ingredients in its signature soft drink. United States President Donald Trump has announced that Coca-Cola will start using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup in its US-made soft drink at his urging. “I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola.” Trump said the switch would be a “very good move”, adding: “You’ll see. It’s just better!” Coca-Cola neither confirmed nor denied Trump’s announcement, but said it appreciated the president’s “enthusiasm for our iconic Coca-Cola brand”. “More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon,” the Atlanta, Georgia-based company said in a brief statement. “I have been speaking to @CocaCola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” –President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/9L27oxlYUj — The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 16, 2025 Trump, who is known for his love of Diet Coke, did not explain his push to change the original version of the soft drink’s ingredients, but his health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has harshly criticised the prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup in the American diet. Kennedy, who has pledged to wage war on ultra-processed foods containing ingredients rarely found in kitchen cabinets, has called the sweetener “just a formula for making you obese and diabetic”. Advertisement High-fructose corn syrup, which is derived from corn starch, is favoured by many US manufacturers because it is cheaper than sugar, in part due to government subsidies for corn and tariffs on sugar imports. Coca-Cola began using high-fructose corn syrup in its US production in the 1980s, but still uses cane sugar in many versions of its signature beverage made overseas, including Mexico, whose version of the drink has developed a cult-like following for its supposedly superior taste. While Americans’ high sugar intake is a major contributor to nearly three-quarters of the population being overweight or obese, there is currently no scientific consensus to suggest high-fructose corn syrup is less healthy than cane sugar or other sweeteners. In a 2018 fact sheet, the US Food and Drug Administration said it was “not aware of any evidence” of a “difference in safety” between foods containing high-fructose corn syrup and those with other sweeteners, such as sugar and honey. Adblock test (Why?)