18 July 2025

The Syrian army entered the Syrian city of Sweida earlier this week amid sectarian fighting between Druze and Bedouins, which reportedly began after Bedouin gunmen assaulted a Druze vegetable vendor on Sunday. Witnesses reported that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians. More than 300 were killed.

Israel’s own Druze community demanded that Israel intervene to protect their fellow Druze across the border, as videos emerged from Sweida showing regime forces shaving Druze clerics’ moustaches, as well as stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. According to reports, “other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies.”

Israel attacked military facilities and operatives of the Syrian regime on Wednesday, demanding that regime troops withdraw from Sweida. Israel also attacked the a Syrian Defense ministry in Damascus.

Syrian government forces withdrew from Sweida on Wednesday night, saying they had reached a ceasefire with local Druze forces. Syrian security forces are preparing to redeploy to Sweida city to quell fighting. Israel has said it will give the Syrian forces 48 hours to operate in the city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel will continue to use military means to enforce its two “red lines” in Syria — the demilitarization of the area south of Damascus, near Israel’s border, and the protection of the country’s Druze minority there. Netanyahu said the Damascus regime, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, violated both those red lines in recent days.

Church in Gaza hit by Israeli fire

Out of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox, but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has expressed its “deep sorrow” over the incident. “Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians,” the ministry said in a statement. “The IDF is examining this incident, the circumstances of which are still unclear, and the results of the investigation will be published transparently.”

This comes at a time the IDF is being accused of not adequately protecting Palestinian Christians from radical settlers in the West Bank.

Let us pray ever more urgently for an end to the conflict in Syria and the war in Gaza. May Israel's leaders decide with wisdom, and may those who plan the elimination of the Jewish people be defeated. Above all, pray that all will look to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Prince of Peace, and trust in Him alone.

Israel urges UN action over atrocities against Druze in Syria

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar demands Damascus be held accountable for the violence in Suweida.

Netanyahu’s strategy in Syria: Demilitarization and Druze protection

"We will not allow military forces to move south of Damascus, and we will not allow harm to come to the Druze in Jabal al-Druze," the prime minister said.

The massacre of the Druze

Melanie Phillips: The Syrian leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani has presided over an appalling massacre of the Druze in Suweida, Syria. Israel is the only country standing up for the Druze. Yet Israel is being condemned for doing so. The moral perversity and bankruptcy of the west know no bounds.

SYRIAN Rawan Osman: "To Israel - Thank You From The Depths of My Syrian Heart. To The World - Shame On You"

Rawan Osman is a Syrian Sunni Muslim Activist born in Damascus, brought up to hate the Jewish people.

Under pressure from Trump, Netanyahu says he ‘regrets’ mistaken shelling of Gaza church

IDF says shrapnel from a tank shell fired in the area mistakenly hit the church, reiterates that IDF does not target religious buildings.

French, Saudi leaders bow out of own UN summit amid political headwinds

Neither of the conference’s conveners, French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will attend, according to Le Monde.

Israeli envoy condemns ‘glaring silence’ from UN agencies

“These children were victims of an evil that this council seems unwilling to address or condemn: Hamas,” Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly said.

Huckabee threatens to declare Israel not welcoming Christians, as visa row blows open

US envoy pens scathing letter to Israeli interior minister, accusing Israel of blocking Christian groups from entering Israel and threatening reciprocal steps against Israeli visa seekers

Recognizing facts would help the Palestinians enormously

The main obstacle to Palestinian prosperity and Palestinian statehood isn’t Israel. It isn’t even the Israeli extreme right or the extremist settlers. It is the Palestinians’ own inability to distinguish fact from fiction, and only they can overcome that obstacle.

The Enchantment of the Arab Mind

Housein Aboubakr Mansour: Today’s Islamism promises authenticity but is postmodern in form, postcolonial in posture, and pretends to retrieve the sacred through the techniques of the profane.