The post Herzog meets Druze leader after ‘horrific’ Syria violence, calls for de-escalation appeared first on The Times of Israel.

Nine days of armed clashes and serious abuses in Syria’s southern Sweida governorate have triggered a dire humanitarian crisis,

If the groups in Syria move toward division and destabilization, Türkiye will consider it a direct threat to its national security and will intervene, Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan said Tuesday.

Ongoing sectarian violence in Sweida, Syria has triggered mass displacement in the area as humanitarians attempt to deliver aid.

Israel says it is intervening to protect Syria’s Druze residents who have strong ties to Israel’s Druze community. Damascus called the attack a violation of sovereignty.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.

The latest escalation began with a Bedouin tribe in Sweida setting up a checkpoint and attacking and robbing a Druze man, which triggered tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

More than 100,000 civilians have had to flee homes and refugee camps because of violence in Idlib province. "Barrel bombs are just falling on the heads of these people," says a civil defense worker.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) documented a significant outbreak of brutality in the killings that gripped Suweida province.