Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday (October 15) the details of a phone call he had with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, related to the events in Suwayda in July 2025.
In a speech he delivered at an election rally with members of the Druze community in Israel, Netanyahu said, according to footage broadcast by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN), “I called Sharaa. It was a very brief and decisive call, and the massacre stopped.” Netanyahu did not specify the exact timing of the call, which appears to be the first announced direct contact between him and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
During the meeting, Netanyahu touched on the bloody attacks that the governorate located in southern Syria witnessed in July last year.
On the other hand, the Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted an official source in the Syrian government as statements in this regard, in which he neither denied nor confirmed the occurrence of contact between Sharaa and Netanyahu, but expressed his refusal to involve the Druze in Israeli electoral propaganda.
The source said: “The Druze component in Suwayda Governorate was and will remain an integral and authentic part of the national fabric of the Syrian Arab Republic, and we categorically reject its politicization or inclusion in Israeli propaganda and elections.”
According to what was said, in defense of the Druze, the Israeli government intervened during the bloody events that took place in the Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria, which broke out between Druze militants and Bedouin fighters, before expanding with the intervention of government forces and then armed tribesmen alongside the Bedouins.
Israel launched air strikes in Suwayda and against government targets in Damascus, including the Syrian Army Staff Building and the vicinity of the Republican Palace, justifying its move by the need to protect minorities.
In the same statement published by SANA, the same source said in his comment, “American mediation stopped the Israeli bombing in July 2025, which hindered government intervention to end the confrontations between the Druze and Bedouins in Suwayda, and we continue to work with the United States and Jordan to implement the tripartite road map and reintegrate Suwayda according to a national vision that guarantees the rights of the people, security, and stability.”
The Syrian source called on "the international community, the United States, and the countries of the region to put pressure on Israel to implement the 1974 agreement and not interfere in Syria's internal affairs."
The events in Suwayda resulted in the killing of at least 1,707 people during one week of violence, the majority of whom were civilians belonging to the Druze sect, in addition to Bedouin civilians, and at least 225 members of the Syrian forces, according to an investigation issued by the United Nations.
Last July, trial sessions began for those accused of involvement in the violence that took place in Suwayda Governorate.
Since the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syria, sending troops into the UN-supervised buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan since 1974.
It has also carried out repeated incursions into Syrian territory, and pledged to keep forces in the so-called "security zone" in southern Syria, as it seeks to expand the scope of the demilitarized zone.
In addition, Syria and Israel held several rounds of direct talks as part of their efforts to reach a security agreement between the two parties.
