JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had previously spoken to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa about violence against the Druze community, in his first acknowledgement of direct contact between the two leaders.
Netanyahu did not specify when the call took place but suggested it occurred during deadly clashes in southern Syria in July 2025 involving Druze factions, Bedouin fighters and government security forces.
“I called al-Sharaa. It was a very short, very sharp conversation, and the slaughter stopped,” Netanyahu said at an election rally with members of Israel’s Druze community, according to footage broadcast by Israeli public broadcaster KAN.
The clashes erupted in Syria’s Sweida province between armed Druze factions and Bedouin fighters, before government security forces and some tribal groups intervened on the side of the Bedouins.
More than 2,000 people were killed, including 789 Druze civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog.
A committee established by the Syrian government said it had documented 1,760 deaths.
At the time, government forces and their allies were accused of executing civilians and committing other abuses.
Israel, which also has a Druze population, intervened militarily during the clashes, launching strikes in Sweida and against government targets in Damascus, saying it was defending the minority community.
Government-aligned forces later withdrew from Sweida city, leaving a fragile ceasefire in place. In July this year, Damascus said it had begun trying suspects over the violence.
Since the ousting of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria and deployed troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights since 1974.
It has also carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory and vowed to keep troops in a so-called “security zone” in southern Syria, where it is seeking a broader demilitarised area.
Syria’s new leaders have condemned Israeli military action in the country’s south but have refrained from responding with force.
Despite the tensions, Syria and Israel have held several rounds of direct talks as they move towards a security agreement.