\u201cWhat were we supposed to do? Watch them get slaughtered and be silent?\u201d said Muwaffaq Tarif, the spiritual chieftain of the 150,000-strong Druze community in Israel.<\/p>\n
Marshaling family ties in Syria and links to Israel\u2019s military and government, the operation headquartered in the salon now provides funds, humanitarian and medical aid, along with logistical and intelligence support \u2014 this despite a months-long blockade on Sweida by Syrian forces.<\/p>\n
The assistance has become part of a vital lifeline for the province, and has empowered Druze militias and spiritual leaders calling for secession from Syria and an alliance with Israel. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Demonstrators dance with the Druze flag as they gather in front of the Berlin Cathedral to voice solidarity for Druze communities in Syria on Aug. 30 in Berlin.<\/p>\n
(Omer Messinger \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The needs are vast. As Tarif sat with volunteers at the salon, his phones racked up calls and messages \u2014 the grand majority from Druze in Syria. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting 500, 800, sometimes even a thousand people, every day. All need my help. It makes you cry,\u201d Tarif said. <\/p>\n
The Druze \u2014 a sect that combines elements of Islam and other religious traditions \u2014 constitute 1 million people worldwide; some 500,000 live in Syria, or roughly 3% of the population. Hard-line Muslims consider them infidels. <\/p>\n
During Syria\u2019s 14-year civil war, the dictatorial President Bashar Assad let them establish their own militias in Sweida and run affairs in the Druze-majority province, so long as they didn\u2019t fight government troops or allow opposition rebels to enter. But they had little love for Assad or the Islamist-dominated opposition.<\/p>\n
After Assad\u2019s much-reviled regime fell last December, the new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa,<\/a> tried to mollify concerns about the new government\u2019s jihadist roots; Al-Sharaa was once an Al Qaeda-affiliated rebel leader but renounced the group years ago. <\/p>\n A poster of Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria\u2019s interim president, graces a windshield in Damascus as Syrians mark the first anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime.<\/p>\n (John Wreford \/ LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Al-Sharaa promised to protect Syria\u2019s minorities and excise extremists among his allies. That won him support from the U.S., Europe and his Arab neighbors, but Israel took an adversarial stance, occupying swaths of Syria\u2019s south and launching thousands of airstrikes to destroy the fallen government\u2019s arsenal.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Al-Sharaa urged Druze leadership to dissolve their militias and surrender arms. Some wanted to cooperate, but Syria\u2019s top Druze cleric, Hikmat al-Hijri, refused, saying his groups would disarm only when Al-Sharaa formed an inclusive government. <\/p>\n Syria is home to a diverse collection of religions, and as the new government sought to establish itself, sectarian unrest broke out. In March, government-linked gunmen massacred some 1,500 people,<\/a> mostly Alawites. In May, clashes erupted in Druze-majority areas near Damascus.<\/p>\n Then came the massacres in Sweida.<\/p>\n They started in early July as tit-for-tat kidnappings between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes but soon devolved into street fighting.<\/a> The government negotiated a ceasefire and sent security personnel, but rather than restoring order, they joined the Bedouins in a blood-soaked rampage. <\/p>\n They systematically burned and looted some 32 villages, executed civilians, then mutilated their bodies and abused men by cutting off their mustaches, which among Druze are considered a sign of spiritual maturity. And they filmed themselves doing so, proudly posting trophy videos to social media.<\/p>\n Families are evacuated by the United Nations in southern Syria in July after violent clashes between Bedouin fighters and members of the Druze community. <\/p>\n (Bakr Alkasem \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n By the rampage\u2019s end, nearly 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes. More than 100 women and girls were abducted. Dozens remain missing.<\/p>\n Al-Hijri urged President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to save Sweida, adding that \u201cwe can no longer coexist with a regime that knows only iron and fire.\u201d<\/p>\n Once word reached Tarif of what happened, he raced to action.<\/p>\n \u201cWe called everyone, the [Israeli] army, the government, the prime minister, the defense minister, the chief of staff, to stop the massacres. The Syrian government was entering with tanks, drones, artillery. It was an army versus against civilians with a pistol or rifle,\u201d Tarif said.<\/p>\n Israel, which has made overtures to Syria\u2019s Druze, mobilized. Netanyahu ordered airstrikes<\/a> on Syrian personnel blitzing through Sweida\u2019s provincial capital, along with the Damascus headquarters of the Syrian army and the presidential palace.<\/p>\n Al-Sharaa accused Israel of fomenting internal divisions and said Al-Hijri\u2019s call for international intervention was unacceptable. He formed a committee to investigate atrocities against the Druze and others, and vowed in a speech<\/a> to the United Nations General Assembly in September \u201cto bring every hand stained with the blood of innocents to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Al-Hijri and many Druze previously conciliatory toward Al-Sharaa were unconvinced and demanded to secede.<\/p>\n At the same time, a tense standoff ensued: Syrian government forces surrounded the province, ostensibly to keep Bedouins and Druze separated, though critics accused them of replicating Assad\u2019s surrender-or-starve tactics to force Sweida into submission. <\/p>\n Many among Israel\u2019s Druze wanted to help.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world was ignoring what happened, so we have to do this. Our women sold their gold, people sold property, others took loans to raise money,\u201d Tarif said, adding that some $2.5 million was collected.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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