DAMASCUS: Authorities in southern Syria reported that Israeli bombardment on Tuesday killed at least five people in Daraa province, while Israel’s military said it carried out a strike in response to incoming fire.

The violence in the south, near the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights, followed Israeli air strikes in central Syria, the latest in a string of attacks on military sites since religious-led forces overthrew long time president Bashar al-Assad.

Daraa provincial authorities, in a statement posted on Telegram, said in a provisional toll that “five people killed in the Israeli bombardment of the town of Kuwayya”. It added that residents of the town, west of Daraa city, had fled Israeli tank shelling. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that an “Israeli military unit” entered the town and fired heavy artillery at residents attempting to resist their incursion.

Separately, referring to the bloodshed of Alawi community in Syria, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday that more than 21,000 people had arrived in Lebanon this month fleeing Syria since Bashar al-Assad’s ousting.

UN says more than 21,000 people fled Syrian sectarian violence for Lebanon

A Syrian committee investigating the wave of sectarian killings in the heartland of the country’s Alawi minority said that it had collected scores of accounts of the violence, with its probe ongoing. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported “21,637 new arrivals from Syria” into northern Lebanon, in a report citing figures provided by Lebanese authorities and the Lebanese Red Cross.

The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, has reported near-daily Israeli military incursions into southern Syria beyond the demarcation line.

For days from March 6, Syria’s Mediterranean coast was gripped by mass killings, mainly targeting the Alawi community, to which Assad’s family belongs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 1,600 civilians, mostly Alawi, were killed, accusing security forces and allied groups of participating in “field executions, forced displacement and burning of homes”, with entire families killed, including women, children and the elderly.

The Syrian authorities have accused armed Assad supporters of starting the violence by staging attacks on the new security forces, with military reinforcements then sent to the areas.

UNHCR said that “fleeing families are continuing to cross unofficial border crossing points including through rivers on foot, and are arriving exhausted, traumatised, and hungry”.

It also reported “ongoing reports of insecurity hampering people’s movements before they reach Lebanon”. Around 390 Lebanese families were also among the recent arrivals, it said.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2025