Daraa caught between Suwayda crisis and Israeli threats

PARIS — As tension persists between Druze-majority Suwayda and the Damascus government in the wake of July’s bloodshed, neighboring Daraa province finds itself caught in the middle. 

Killings and kidnappings haunt the Daraa-Suwayda highway, while online disinformation and incitement campaigns sow confusion and accuse the province of responsibility for atrocities in neighboring Suwayda. 

Some campaigns are carried out by fake social media accounts, and others by prominent figures known for supporting Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the Druze spiritual leader who leads Suwayda’s staunch opposition to President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s government in Damascus.

With the Suwayda crisis to the east and Israeli incursions to the west, daily life, the local economy and social dynamics in Daraa have been affected, amid fears that various parties seek to draw the province deeper into the fray.

Particularly concerning to many in Daraa are calls coming from Suwayda and Tel Aviv for the opening of a “humanitarian corridor” between the Druze-majority province and Israel—one that would cut straight through Daraa. 

The proposal corresponds, in part, with “David’s Corridor”: an alleged Israeli ambition to seize control of a strip of territory extending from the occupied Golan Heights, through Quneitra and Daraa to Suwayda, and on along Syria’s eastern border up to areas in the northeast controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Suwayda crisis began in mid-July, when armed confrontations between local Bedouins and Druze escalated into large-scale clashes and killings after Damascus deployed its forces to the province and tribes from other parts of the country mobilized to the south. 

Suwayda residents saw Damascus’s intervention as an attempt to take control of the province by force, and subsequent fighting saw Druze armed groups battling with government forces and aligned Bedouin fighters before a ceasefire was declared on July 19. 

Disinformation and incitement

In recent weeks, a number of social media accounts have accused Daraa’s population of involvement in military operations and atrocities committed in Suwayda.

Maher Sharafuddin, a prominent political writer close to al-Hijri, has repeatedly referred to Daraa province and its people’s involvement in Suwayda. In a post on August 20, he alleged the town of Umm Walad in the eastern Daraa countryside lost 400 men who participated in the Suwayda “massacre,” implying they were killed by Druze forces.

Journalist Muhammad al-Rifai, who is from Umm al-Walad, denied the allegation. “Maher’s claims are not true, and contain incitement…the number of members of general security and defense ministry [forces] from the town is small, and it is not certain that they participated” in Suwayda, he said.  

In mid-August, a number of social media accounts from Suwayda circulated a post attributed to different members of well-known Daraa families—such as the al-Hariri, al-Masalmeh and al-Zoubi families—calling on the people of the province to stand against the government and al-Sharaa. 

The accounts sharing the post stated it was taken from the social media page of its author. Syria Direct conducted an in-depth search for the names of the various individuals the post was attributed to, but could not find any accounts under these names, indicating that the post is likely a fabrication.

“The reason and religion of most of our people in Daraa has been removed in a way we have not known even under the two Assads,” the post read. “This is a dangerous harbinger, especially since the minds of our children are today being invaded by the threat of terrorist thought.” It added that “betrayal and treachery” as part of the nature of people in Daraa, who have “followed fatwas of murder, terrorism, treachery and betrayal.”  

The content and timing of the post coincided with a “systematic disinformation campaign led by fake accounts and accounts of well-known figures, attempting to blame Daraa—particularly its border villages with Suwayda—for the attack” on the Druze-majority province, al-Rifai said. “The information is misleading” and “carries racist and sectarian aims, and may have other long-term objectives,” he added. 

Since July, some civil actors in Daraa have attempted to lower the temperature and “bridge the rift with neighboring Suwayda,” journalist Hamza al-Fahid, who lives in the al-Lajat region of eastern Daraa, told Syria Direct. Two initiatives were launched, “both of which were rejected by the Suwayda side.” 

In early August, notables and activists in Daraa launched the media campaigns “Suwayda in the Heart of Syria” and “Suwayda is Syrian” to counter escalating hate speech and sectarian incitement and warn of the dangers of partition and demographic change. Shortly before, social figures from various Syrian communities launched what they called the “Syrian Civil Initiative” to resolve the Suwayda crisis and address it in preparation for an internal national dialogue.

Read more: Suwayda between self-administration and division: Are civil initiatives too late?

Abu Muhammad, a notable from the northern Daraa city of Inkhil, did not deny that people from his city fought in Suwayda in July. However, “they are no more than 20 people who went out individually and do not represent their city, or even their families,” he told Syria Direct, adding that such individuals should not be taken to represent an entire province. 

In July, Daraa experienced a state of “anger as a result of the sectarian killings that happened in Suwayda,” Abu Muhammad said, referencing attacks on Bedouin communities. However, “its cities and towns did not witness any calls or mobilizations to fight in Suwayda.” Rather, there were “humanitarian mobilizations to provide relief to our displaced Bedouin people,” he added. Some tribal fighters who flowed into Suwayda in July from other parts of the country crossed through Daraa province.

Abu Muhammad pointed to a humanitarian crossing to Suwayda that has passed through Daraa in recent weeks, saying residents have not objected. Over the same period, however, the province recorded several kidnappings of people from Suwayda transiting through Daraa via the humanitarian road.

Asmat al-Absi, a military and strategic analyst from Daraa, believes the problem is greater than tensions between the two neighboring provinces, locally referred to as “the plain [Daraa] and the mountain [Suwayda].” Israel “is the one that benefits from escalating tensions in the south, and from Suwayda being socially separated from the rest of Syria,” alongside “remnants of the former regime who belong to some Druze factions, and other external parties,” he added. 

Security incidents

Areas of the eastern Daraa countryside, adjacent to Suwayda, have seen several killings and kidnappings of civilians from Suwayda in recent weeks, including humanitarian workers. 

On August 26, a young man named Dahham Munawar Abu al-Khail was shot and killed by unidentified assailants on the road between the towns of al-Musayfra and al-Kahil in the eastern Daraa countryside. Munawar was one of thousands of Bedouins displaced to Daraa from Suwayda since mid-July. 

On August 17, a group of Druze women and children were kidnapped near al-Kahil on while traveling from the Reef Dimashq town of Sahnaya to Suwayda province. They were released five days later, on August 22.

“The kidnappings of Druze civilians were carried out by people from Suwayda Bedouin tribes, who have people [of their own] detained by Druze [armed] groups in Suwayda, and have been demanding their release for a month and a half,” journalist al-Fahid said. 

Whatever the motives behind the kidnappings and attacks, they are “destructive and unacceptable,” al-Rifai said. “Those coming through the humanitarian crossing are civilians, most of whom are in need of medical care, and they have the right to move freely.” Anyone “committing such acts is a saboteur damaging Syria’s social fabric.”

Suwayda crisis impacts Daraa

Over the past four months, Abu Khaled, a Syrian investor living in Jordan, visited his northern Daraa hometown of Inkhil several times to assess the city’s new reality, repair his home and launch small investment projects in the city. Soon, he planned to move back with his family. 

At the end of August, he called off the move, which was planned for the start of September, because of the “tense security situation in southern Syria,” he told Syria Direct. 

“The problems in Suwayda and Israel’s intervention have directly impacted the market in Daraa,” Abu Khaled said. “I noticed a sort of downturn in the market recently. This is natural—people are afraid to put their money into an unstable environment, or one with an uncertain future.” 

Back in May, the investor had launched “small businesses at the level of construction workshops and renovating houses and shops” in Daraa, hoping to expand his business and move part of it from Jordan to Syria. However, “that is not possible because of the scenarios surrounding southern Syria—partition, secession, Israeli interventions—that leave it in constant tension and instability.” 

“I wanted my family to move before the start of the school year, but that does not seem possible,” he said. Instead, Abu Khaled and his family will stay in Jordan at least through the end of the current school year. 

In the eastern Daraa countryside, closest to Suwayda, Abu Muhammad al-Hariri has seen the profits from his home furnishings store fall by half since July. His business had picked up after the Assad regime fell in December 2024, but “the Suwayda crisis directly impacted the market in Daraa, especially the eastern countryside,” he said. 

Similarly, “the arrival of thousands of Bedouins displaced from Suwayda has strained services and driven up their prices,” al-Hariri added. “People go without what they see as nonessential expenses—like our [furniture] business—and try to hold on to their money in times of security tensions.” 

“More than 15 villages in the eastern Daraa countryside adjacent to Suwayda were directly affected,” journalist al-Fahid said. “For example, the town of Busr al-Harir, to which more than 500 displaced Bedouin families fled, and which had served as the route to Suwayda.” 

The influx and ongoing tensions have “impacted the lives of civilians, work and services provided to people,” al-Fahid added. Farmers in particular have “difficulty reaching their lands in some areas [bordering Suwayda] because of the military operations.” 

In the past, life in eastern Daraa was connected to neighboring Suwayda province. “Daraa villages used to buy some of what they needed from Suwayda, and business and trade exchanged between the two provinces. People used to go to doctors in Suwayda, to the National Hospital there,” al-Rifai said. 

Apart from the economic impact, “the psychological impact on Daraa is the greatest today, especially after some people in Suwayda called for the Israeli occupation to enter” southern Syria and establish a humanitarian corridor, al-Rifai added. 

Daraa is living between “security tensions and the danger of Israeli incursions from the west, and a security crisis in the east,” al-Absi noted. This has caused the “delay of services in Daraa due to this security situation, which also impacted the social and economic situation.” 

Just last week, Israeli forces detained seven people during an incursion into the town of Jabat al-Khashab, a town in the Quneitra countryside in southern Syria.

In addition, “the media propaganda directed against Daraa—online trolls waging a psychological and media war—negatively affects all aspects of life in the province,” al-Absi said. “Days ago, there were organized campaigns claiming that Israeli incursions had penetrated deep into Daraa, and that the province had fallen into the hands of the occupation.” 

Separatism and Daraa’s future 

On August 25, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri put out a video calling on “honorable people of the world from all free countries to stand with us as the Druze community in southern Syria to declare a separate territory.” 

His message came as he met with the new leader of the Men of Dignity movement, Mazid Khadaj, who announced his faction was joining Suwayda’s “National Guard”: a military entity formed last month to bring together Druze armed factions under al-Hijri’s leadership. 

These moves coincide with demonstrations in Suwayda calling for self-determination, separation from Syria and the entrance of Israeli forces, as well as for a humanitarian corridor to be opened linking Israel with Suwayda.

“We respect the right of neighborliness, and call for peace and national coexistence, but we will not accept the presence of tools bringing the occupier and dividing our land,” Inkhil notable Abu Muhammad said. Any Israeli-controlled corridor to Suwayda “would divide Daraa into northern and southern halves.” 

During the violence in Suwayda in July, when tribes from across the country mobilized in support of Bedouins, “Daraa distanced itself, and was watching the western front and the danger of the Israeli occupation,” he said.

Military analyst al-Absi downplayed the possibility of implementing such a corridor on the ground, calling it a “fantasy, a dream that Israel cannot implement.” Tel Aviv’s intervention in Suwayda, and “its drones targeting people of the Houran [Daraa] from general security and the army” means “hostility to Israel will be multiplied” if it tried to do so. 

“Israel does not have ground superiority, only air superiority,” al-Absi noted. “This is what we note in Gaza—a besieged area no more than 10 kilometers wide, where Israel has not been able to impose its control despite policies of killing, starvation and destruction.” Gaza’s area is “10 percent of the area of [David’s] Corridor,” meaning a human reservoir would be required to protect it, and therefore it “cannot be implemented militarily.” 

“Suwayda is not a purely Druze region, as there are Bedouin tribes and Christians. They have the right to return to their homes and determine their destiny” too, al-Fahid said. They “will not allow rebellious groups to commandeer Suwayda’s decision” and speak in their name, he added.

Al-Rifai concluded: “Daraa’s people view the partition project and David’s Corridor as a threat to their existence, and will not stand idly by in the face of it.” 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.