The three leading sheikhs of the Druze community in Syria’s Suwayda province have issued statements taking a clear stance against the Turkish-backed Damascus government in a sign of worsening tensions.  

Sheikhs Yusuf al-Jarbou and Hammoud al-Hanawi have now aligned themselves with the position long held by Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, as reported by Enab Baladi on August 10.

The three sheikhs—al-Hijri, al-Jarbou, and al-Hanawi—are the top spiritual leaders of the Druze in Suwayda. While al-Hijri has consistently been critical of Damascus during the recent unrest, Jarbou has fluctuated between cooperation with and condemnation of the government, and Hanawi had remained silent until now.

At least 1,013 people were killed amid violent clashes in Suwayda in mid-July, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Local factions, government forces, tribal fighters, and Bedouin groups were involved in the clashes, with Israel intervening militarily against Syrian government forces.

In a video statement released by the Spiritual Leadership of the Druze Community on August 9, al-Hijri, the most outspoken critic of Damascus, said, “Suwayda has witnessed in recent days a series of crimes that can only be described as systematic genocide carried out in cold blood.”

He described a “suffocating siege lasting weeks, including the cutting of water, electricity, and food, in an attempt to break the will of an unbreakable people.”

“What happened is not isolated incidents but a silent plan of extermination carried out in full view of the world,” al-Hijri said, calling the use of starvation against civilians “not just a violation, but a war crime.” He denounced “propaganda campaigns led by official media and channels supportive of the de facto government.”

Israel has said its intervention was to protect the Druze, citing strikes against government forces near Suwayda and targeting Syria’s Defence Ministry headquarters and the presidential palace in Damascus.

Al-Hijri expressed gratitude to countries “that refused to remain silent, first and foremost the US,” adding, “We value the positions of states that stood by the oppressed, foremost among them President Trump.”

He also praised “the position of Israel, its government, and its people for its humanitarian intervention to reduce massacres against the people of Suwayda out of moral and humanitarian duty.”

Al-Hijri called on the UN Security Council to “act immediately and open an independent international investigation into the crimes committed in Suwayda,” urging the prosecution of those responsible at the International Criminal Court and the deployment of international monitoring missions to protect civilians.

Sheikh Hammoud al-Hanawi said in his video statement on August 9, “There is no covenant and no pact between Suwayda and the government in Damascus,” marking a clear break from his earlier stance.

“We have been afflicted with an authority with no honour, that sold the homeland and betrayed its people before betraying its borders, an authority that has been a drawn sword against innocent civilians with extremist ideas that permit the spilling of blood,” Hanawi declared.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Jarbou echoed these sentiments in a parallel statement: “We stand today to see the consequences of this aggression, which came under the pretext of ‘asserting state control’ but in reality provided cover and protection for an ‘army of Tatars’ who corrupted the land and killed unarmed civilians without justification.”

He described these acts as “sectarian barbarity” amounting to “an attempt at systematic ethnic cleansing.” He called them “a true betrayal of the Syrian people as a whole, stripping this clique of any legitimacy to rule the state.”

Jarbou held “the states that supported this clique (the Syrian government) responsible” and urged them to change course, thanking the Druze spiritual leader in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, for his support.