Israeli raid on Damascus: Syria's fragile post-war situation implodes

Since Sunday, intense clashes have resumed in Suwayda between Druze militias and Bedouin fighters, the latter supported by the new Syrian government. Faced with the deteriorating situation, Damascus has reportedly announced its intention to intervene to restore order. However, the Israeli military intervention appears to have seized the opportunity to assert its direct role in the conflict, officially declaring its intention to protect the Druze community , but clearly acting because it does not consider the new government in Damascus to be reliable or impartial.

The afternoon of July 16, 2025, was marked by a sudden and dramatic escalation: the Israeli Air Force struck Damascus with a series of targeted raids , hitting the People's Palace , where interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa resides, a wing of the Ministry of Defense and the headquarters of the General Staff , located in Umayyad Square .

#Israel opens a new front with #Syria in defense of the Druze minority. The #TelAviv army launched a heavy offensive on #Damascus today: the Ministry of Defense and areas adjacent to the presidential palace were hit. At least one dead and several wounded. pic.twitter.com/UxYUzbibW8

— Tg1 (@Tg1Rai) July 16, 2025

According to Syrian sources, the attacks have caused at least three deaths and thirty-four injuries , but the toll could worsen in the coming hours. The missiles and drones used caused explosions that were broadcast live on the public television station SyriaTV, where a presenter was caught live by the blast. The video was immediately reposted by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz , who commented: "The hardest blows have just begun," suggesting further military operations.

Official Israeli statements

Tel Aviv justified the attack as a defensive action intended to protect the Druze minority in Syria, which has been under siege for days in the Suwayda region on the southern border. The Israeli government also expressed fears that the forces of the new Syrian government were approaching an area deemed strategic by Israel, namely the border with the Golan Heights, which is formally a demilitarized zone .

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to Israel's Druze community, asking them not to cross the border to support their Syrian relatives caught in the fighting. In a solemn tone, he promised that Israel "will not abandon our Druze brothers," reiterating his commitment to defending the collective security of the Druze community, both within and beyond the state's borders.

Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated: "Once a jihadist, always a jihadist. Anyone who kills, humiliates, or rapes should not negotiate. The only thing to do with Al-Giolani is to eliminate him. I love the Druze citizens of the State of Israel and I tell them: we must eliminate the head of the snake." He also reiterated that the priority is to protect the Druze and prevent Syrian presence in the Suwayda region, despite Israeli warnings.

Suwayda: The Invisible Massacre

Meanwhile, in the Suwayda region, a humanitarian tragedy of immense proportions has unfolded. Clashes between Druze groups , Syrian government forces , and Bedouin militias have resulted in over three hundred deaths . The victims include at least seventy-one Druze civilians , one hundred and fifty-six members of the Syrian security forces , and eighteen Bedouin tribal fighters .

The fighting has devastated the region, leaving dozens of villages without electricity or drinking water. The main hospital in Suwayda was bombed, and patients were urgently evacuated. Numerous families are fleeing, amid widespread fear.

A ceasefire announced on July 16 by Druze leader Yousef Jarbou has failed, just as the previous agreement signed just a few days earlier had failed. Suspicions remain that not all Druze groups are aligned with the agreement, and Israel has already indicated that it has no confidence in the agreement's viability , given the involvement of Syrian government forces in the area.

Who is Ahmed al-Sharaa?

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa , who took office after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 , is a controversial figure. A former commander of a moderate Islamist militia, he has reinvented himself as an institutional figure in an attempt to mediate between secularists and religious figures, but his government is fragile and fragmented . He lacks effective authority in large swathes of the country and is unable to ensure public order , especially in peripheral areas such as Suwayda or Daraa.

Al Jazeera sources report that al-Sharaa is desperately trying to consolidate control , but its power base is fragile. There are fears in many Israeli circles that behind its apparent moderation lies a radical Islamist agenda , and some posts on X even insinuate that the new government is the result of previous Western support that has since degenerated . However, these claims remain speculative and unconfirmed by official sources .

Why does Israel defend the Druze?

The connection between Israel and the Druze community is neither accidental nor recent. Approximately 150,000 Druze live in Israel, perfectly integrated into society and institutions: they serve in the army , participate in political life, and represent a loyal component of the state. In particular, the Druze community in the Golan Heights has maintained a dual cultural and religious allegiance for years, but in many cases has chosen Israeli citizenship.

Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif , the highest spiritual authority of the Druze in Israel, called for immediate action to protect civilians in Suwayda. Israel, therefore, has a direct interest , both military and political , in ensuring the survival of the Druze community in Syria, considered not only a minority to be defended but also a strategic buffer on the border with a Syrian regime perceived as hostile.

International reactions

Global reactions were swift. The European Union condemned the violence in Suwayda and the Israeli attacks on Damascus, calling for respect for Syrian sovereignty and an immediate cessation of fighting. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the protection of civilians and an immediate de-escalation of the conflict.

For its part, Turkey has accused Israel of destabilizing Syria and seeking to exploit the crisis to consolidate its military control over the border. Russian sources , such as Pravda Italia , describe the Israeli attacks as part of a regional containment strategy , but are reluctant to comment due to the reduction in Russia's presence in Syria following the fall of Assad. No official statement has come from the Kremlin.

The Post-Assad Disaster: A Syria in Pieces

Assad was a secularist who, despite contradictions and internal/external pressures, allowed the coexistence of Christians, Druze, and other minorities. Now, he argues, the "throat-cutter" al-Jolani (al Shaara) , already considered a terrorist, has paradoxically passed through a phase of international accreditation and is now being bombed by the same actors who had tolerated or supported him.

Since the fall of Assad, nothing has improved . Indeed, Syria is now more fragile and fragmented than ever . The apparent success of regime change has given way to chaos: institutions have collapsed , religious minorities are no longer protected , and sectarian militias are competing for territory. The Syrian armed forces, decimated and disorganized, are unable to guarantee security even in the major cities .

The al-Sharaa government is proving incapable of exercising real authority, and Syria is now a map of zones of influence : Turkey to the north, the US to the east, Israel to the south, and only ruins in the center. In this scenario, the Druze, who had maintained a fragile autonomy under Assad, have become easy targets , while Israeli intervention further exacerbates internal divisions.

War within the war

The Israeli bombing of Damascus on July 16 represents a dramatic turning point not only because of the severity of the attack - which directly hit the presidential palace and military leaders for the first time - but above all because it marks the failure of the fragile order imposed after the fall of Bashar al-Assad .

Israel's call to defend the Druze increasingly appears to be a pretext for military action , while in reality it is intertwined with much broader geopolitical interests , aimed at preventing any form of national reconciliation in Syria. The ceasefire in Suwayda is extremely unstable, and Syria finds itself on the brink of a new spiral of violence , fueled by sectarian logic and the fragmentation of power.

A crucial fact must be emphasized: never, in over ten years of conflict, has Israel struck the Syrian presidential palace . This unprecedented attack clearly signals a radical distrust of the new government: Tel Aviv considers the new leadership not only less reliable than Assad, but even more dangerous in terms of territorial control and regional stability.

Under the leadership of Bashar al-Assad—despite enormous internal and external pressure— Syria had maintained state unity , guaranteed coexistence among minorities, and prevented the country's definitive collapse. Today, however, Syria is fractured, abandoned, and reduced to a battleground between external powers , where peace is a mirage and reconstruction an empty concept.

That now , in the midst of this announced disaster, the main European governments have unreservedly recognized the current Syrian leadership , accrediting it as a "moderate" partner, is a glaring contradiction . More than a diplomatic choice, it seems an ideological one, pursuing the logic of permanent destabilization, prefiguring a new Libyan situation after the NATO "cure."

Before the attacks on the Druze: massacres against the Alawites

In recent months, before the 'punishments and humiliations' against the Druze, a violent and disturbing pattern has spread, with the indiscriminate extrajudicial execution of thousands of members of the Alawite community , simply because it is the ethnic group to which Assad belongs. The Syrian authorities, between March and April, carried out real ethnic cleansing on the Alawite coast . Sources such as the SOHR and the Syrian Network for Human Rights estimate over 1,600 civilians killed in a wave of targeted violence, which included torture, summary executions and selective looting ( ) . According to Reuters, hundreds of Alawites are being killed or arrested with each new purge . This spiral of violence confirms that post-Assad Syria is truly in the grip of sectarian chaos , where minorities are once again exposed to vengeful fury in the absence of a state capable of guaranteeing security and justice.