Escalation and appeals for calm: Is civil peace crumbling in Syria’s Druze communities?

PARIS — Coinciding with a sharp rise in sectarian incitement and hate speech, Druze-majority areas of Syria endured a wave of violence this week, including a major escalation in communities just outside Damascus that spread to parts of nearby Suwayda province.

Tensions first flared over the weekend, when a voice recording containing insults towards the Prophet Muhammad spread on social media, attributed to a Druze sheikh. The sheikh himself denied any involvement, which was later echoed by the Syrian Ministry of Interior.

Over the following days, violent reactions escalated into deadly clashes in Jaramana, Sahnaya and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya—predominantly Druze towns in Reef Dimashq province. No comprehensive death toll has been released, while at least 13 people were reported killed in Jaramana. Those killed included local Druze fighters and members of the Damascus government’s General Security Service. 

The events of recent days reignited questions about the future of civil peace in Syria, and the impact of continued violence on social cohesion and coexistence in a country struggling to move forward after years of war. 

Top Druze clerics were split between calls for calm and escalation in response to this week’s violence. Two of the three Sheikhs of Reason, Yousef Jerboa and Hamoud al-Hanawi, issued a statement calling for calm and restraint on April 29. The third, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri—the spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze—took an escalatory stance towards Damascus.

Their diverging positions reflect a deeper internal division among Druze religious leadership, as the community faces attacks that Damascus attributes to “outlaw groups,” while the government’s own forces are also accused of involvement. 

Late on Thursday local time, Jerboa and al-Hanawi—alongside other prominent leaders and factions in Suwayda—reportedly reached a long-delayed agreement with Damascus to allow its security forces and police to enter the Druze province. Al-Hijri did not sign the agreement, which could deepen existing divisions over the future of the province’s relationship with the central government.

Earlier on Thursday, al-Hijri had issued a statement saying the Druze were being subjected to an “unjustified genocidal attack” and calling for international protection and attention. 

The local spiritual council in Jaramana, meanwhile, put out a contrasting statement, instead calling on the authorities to “play their role in stopping undisciplined forces and factions outside the city that are working to provoke general security personnel and residents in Jaramana.” They emphasized that efforts were continuing to restore normalcy and increase security and stability.

What are the roots of the latest violence and tensions? What are the broader implications for civil peace and coexistence in Syria, as hate speech escalates and the country’s diverse communities find themselves on a path of confrontation? What is the new government’s role, and can Damascus play a part in repairing social fractures and containing further violence? 

What happened?

As the inflammatory voice recording spread online over the weekend, Druze students living in university housing in Syria’s central Homs city were attacked and beaten by other students on April 27. Damascus later said it arrested those involved in the incident and contained the situation. 

Hours later, the backlash to the recording spread to Jaramana and Sahnaya in Reef Dimashq. Unidentified armed groups launched attacks against the two cities, clashing with local Druze fighters and government security forces. The General Security Directorate later announced a number of its forces were killed in Jaramana while intervening in clashes inside the city. 

On April 29, the Syrian government and notables from Jaramana agreed to a set of provisions to put an end to the violence, including “restoring rights and compensation for the families of young men killed in the city as a result of the clashes.” Damascus also pledged to “hold those responsible for the attack accountable and work to bring them to justice,” investigate the events and “curb incitement in all its forms.” The agreement also included a promise to “secure civilian movement between Damascus and Suwayda,” Syria’s Druze-majority southern province. 

The following day, armed confrontations peaked in Sahnaya and spread to the Damascus-Suwayda highway when local armed groups in Suwayda attempted to send reinforcements north to Sahnaya. These forces clashed with pro-government groups from Suwayda, Daraa and Reef Dimashq provinces.

Members of Syria’s general security forces stand guard at a checkpoint in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya near Damascus after two days of sectarian clashes, 1/5/2025 (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)

Ali al-Rifai, the public relations director at Syria’s Ministry of Information, blamed “lawless groups” on Wednesday for the attacks that took place in Jaramana and Sahnaya, without clarifying if he referred to pro-Damascus or local Druze forces. 

Al-Rifai said in his statement that general security prevented armed groups equipped with heavy machine guns from moving from Sahnaya to Jaramana. These forces opened fire on security personnel, he said, sparking armed clashes. 

‘Civil peace is threatened’

On Thursday, “life returned to normal and shops opened their doors after the clashes and military operations in Sahnaya stopped,” Ammar Yasser (a pseudonym), told Syria Direct from his residence in the city. He described what happened as intentional “sedition” sparked by “the voice recording.” 

Yasser, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said clashes began when “a military group, mostly foreign fighters, stormed the city and started to shoot inside it” before clashing with “general security and groups from the Men of Dignity,” a powerful Druze faction headquartered in Suwayda.

Foreign fighters stopped Yasser and asked him about his religion “and where the Druze were,” saying they “were looking for the Druze,” he said. He sheltered at home for the past three days, but “foreign fighters, alongside a small number of Syrians, entered our houses and asked us about our religion,” he said. “They left a Sunni alone, but took a Druze and emptied [looted] his house,” he said.

Yasser, who is Sunni, expressed his regret over what happened, saying “civil peace is threatened today” more than ever, especially as “many people from all communities have left Sahnaya.” 

“The government has the greatest responsibility in every tipping point like this, regardless of the recklessness of some from any sect or component,” said Syrian journalist Hassan Shams, who lives in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. “The government cannot act with a vengeful or retaliatory logic against any Syrian group.” 

Shams called on the authorities in Damascus to “provide real reassurances” and act like “a state assuming its responsibilities.” He recalled previous remarks by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, ““when he said the logic of the revolution is different from the logic of the state, but what is happening on the ground is the opposite of that,” Shams said. 

In turn, Radwan Ziadeh, a senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) think tank, said “the recent events were expected,” attributing them to the “refusal of some Druze groups in Suwayda to allow general security and Syrian army personnel to enter and maintain stability.” 

“Most casualties from the confrontations were from general security,” Ziadeh stated. He felt Damascus’s security forces “learned a great deal from the lesson of the coast, and therefore contained the events and absorbed the initial shock or pressure of the situation.” 

Ziadeh did not feel this week’s events would have broader repercussions for civil or social peace. Still, “it should be considered that sectarianism is deepening greatly because of the rhetoric of some figures in Suwayda, particularly Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, who refuses to publicly condemn Israeli interventions, which is a sensitive point for Syrians,” he added.

Coinciding with the tensions on the ground, social media saw a marked increase in hate speech, with “incitement and polarization between different sects,” Ziadeh told Syria Direct. “Syria needs all its citizens and sects—sectarian diversity is a source of beauty.”

During the military confrontations outside Damascus, an Israeli aircraft conducted an airstrike in Sahnaya on Wednesday. In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Israel Katz said their military conducted a “warning operation” against an “extremist group” preparing to attack “the Druze population.”

Israel sent a “serious message” to Syria’s leadership, Netanyahu and Katz added, that it “expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze.”

Commenting on Tel Aviv’s statements, journalist Shams said “Israel’s role is to fuel the conflict in Syria,” warning that “those who put their hand in Israel’s do not know it does not accept partnership and uses those people for its own interests.” Anyone “in agreement with Israel,” he asserted, “is a tool bringing strife to their own people, sect and Syrian identity,” in reference to calls by members of some minorities for Israel to intervene and protect them. 

Tel Aviv’s path cannot be blocked if “the authorities in Damascus do not handle these crises wisely,” Shams added. 

Repairing the social fracture

Shams criticized the one-day National Dialogue Conference, held in late February, as well as Damascus’ mid-March constitutional declaration, saying neither sent “reassuring messages to Syria’s components, but rather spread fear among some.” 

To rebuild civil peace, “the government must call for a new national dialogue conference, invite honorable Syrians and professionals, and put forward a constitutional framework under which everyone is equal,” he added. It must also “cleanse its institutions of anyone acting outside the law and logic of the state—whether Syrian or foreign.” 

If not, Damascus is “inviting the devil, Israel, which could lead to partition,” Shams said. He stressed Syrians’ right to “receive reassurances, especially given the current authority’s jihadist background.” 

Damascus’ delay in addressing “accountability and justice” complicates the situation, Shams added. He called for the swift “arrest of criminals of all sects, holding them accountable in fair courts and holding those who provide them support accountable, without making an entire sect responsible for the crimes of an individual.” 

Ziadeh, for his part, emphasized the need for Damascus to “establish a political track related to dialogue and political participation, in conjunction with the security track it is currently pursuing” and “address root causes of the tensions, which are related to economic and social opportunities.” 

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