Syrian authorities evacuated hundreds of Bedouin civilians from the Druze-majority city of Suwayda on Monday under a U.S.-brokered truce aimed at halting days of deadly clashes that killed over 1,000.
The violence in the southern province has posed a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, drawing Israeli airstrikes on his government last week and deepening troubles in a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war.
A cease-fire took hold on Sunday as Interior Ministry security forces deployed on Suwayda's outskirts. Interior Minister Anas Khattab said Sunday the truce would allow for the release of hostages and detainees held by the warring sides.
On Monday morning, ambulances, trucks and buses ferried hundreds of Bedouin civilians, including women, children and wounded people, out of Suwayda to nearby displacement camps, Reuters footage showed.
The initial batch included some 300 Bedouins and a second group of about 550 civilians will be evacuated within the next 24 hours if the situation remains calm, said Shoaib Asfour, a member of the Syrian security forces overseeing the evacuation.
The next phase would see the evacuation of Bedouin fighters detained by Druze militias and the transfer of bodies of Bedouins killed in the fighting, Asfour said.
Syria's state news agency said a total of 1,500 Bedouins would be evacuated from Suwayda city.
Citing Ahmed al-Dalati, head of Syria's internal security forces in Suwayda, state media said those forces would also facilitate the return to Suwayda of others displaced from it.
According to the United Nations, at least 93,000 people have been uprooted by the fighting – most of them within Suwayda province, but others to Daraa province to the west, or north to the countryside around the capital Damascus.
The U.N. said Sunday that humanitarian convoys with medical supplies had been waiting to enter Suwayda for two days but were not granted access. It said only a convoy of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had been allowed to enter.
The Druze are a small but influential minority in Syria, Israel and Lebanon who follow a religion that is an offshoot of a branch of Shiite Islam.
The fighting began a week ago with clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters. Damascus sent troops to quell the fighting, but they were drawn into the violence.
Luna Albassit, a Druze activist in the town of Shahba in Suwayda province, said the situation after so much bloodshed remained tense despite the end to clashes late on Sunday.
Hamzah Mustafa, Syria's information minister, told Reuters last week that the Damascus government strongly condemned all abuses and rejected sectarian violence in all its forms.
Interim President al-Sharaa has promised to protect the rights of Druze and hold to account those who committed violations against "our Druze people."
He has blamed the violence on "outlaw groups."
After Israel bombed Syrian government forces in Suwayda and hit the Defense Ministry in Damascus last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the demilitarization of southern Syrian territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Suwayda.
He also claims Israel would protect the Druze.
