Amid clashes between Druze residents of Syria, Bedouins, militias supporting Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Syrian government forces in recent weeks, videos and eyewitness testimony has emerged of brutal executions, torture and rape in Sweida, a Druze town in southern Syria. 

A group of Israelis has been working together to provide medical aid to Syrian Druze women who were allegedly sexually assaulted, an Israeli Druze source who is part of the initiative told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. There have been reports of rape of Druze girls and women, including the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, though the number of victims is still unknown. 

Israel began transferring NIS 2 million (over $600,000) in humanitarian aid to the Sweida area in recent days, including food, first aid kits and other medical equipment. Hundreds of Israelis donated blood to be sent to Syria. On Sunday, four Israeli Air Force helicopters reportedly reached the hospital in Sweida, which was attacked in last week’s clashes.

In addition to the official aid packages, Druze Israeli women attempted to smuggle emergency contraception delaying or preventing ovulation, to minimize the likelihood of pregnancy among women reportedly raped in the clashes. However, those packages were intercepted.

The Druze Israeli women are continuing their effort to send other kinds of medical aid to victims of rape in the attacks, the source said.

Laila Khalife, an Israeli Druze activist, said that pro-government militias and Bedouin in the area have “targeted aid for the Druze community, whether it’s food or medicine, it’s been stolen. Even medical crews were killed so they can’t help.” 

The IDF declined to comment on the matter.

One widely circulated video showed a reporter from the Qatar-backed Al-Araby channel interviewing a Bedouin man who claimed to have kidnapped the Druze women and children in his car. A woman in the car confirmed that she was Druze and that she and her family had hid in their home for a week before being taken captive. Reports indicated that 97 Druze women were missing on Tuesday, though Druze sources in Israel put the number as high as 1,000. 

Khalife, a resident of Maghar in northern Israel, is part of a small group of Israelis — Druze and Jewish — who have been in constant contact with the Druze community in Syria and are working to provide them with aid.

She said that “almost 1,000 women were abducted and many more were murdered, some were raped before they were murdered and many were brutally violated. Their husbands and sons were murdered in front of them … There is no one left to fight for [the abducted women].”

Khalife expressed concern that the missing women would be “forced to convert to Islam, violated and used for sex trafficking.”

The women who remain in Sweida are “struggling with emotional and physical scars,” Khalife said.

Attacking Druze women is particularly painful for the community, Khalife added, because “in the Druze religion, [women] are sacred and protected. They are symbols of honor, of dignity.”

Khalife said that a fatwa, the Islamic religious ruling, calling to attack Sweida permitted the sexual violence: “It’s a vile war tactic that existed hundreds and thousands of years ago. It has no place in today’s world … The human conscience cannot comprehend it.”

Khalife called on women worldwide “to raise protests in every street, every city and every country. Women should not remain silent.”

“It’s like Oct. 7,” she added, referring to the 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel. “The world still doesn’t believe and doesn’t condemn all of the war crimes. The women’s organizations did not condemn the rape and violation of women on Oct. 7. And that was only one day — this has been more than a week [in Sweida].” 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported earlier this week that 634 Druze were killed in the clashes in Sweida, about half of whom were combatants, and 194 of whom were executed, including a U.S. citizen, 35-year-old Hosam Saraya. In addition, 342 members of government-affiliated militias were killed, as well as 21 members of Bedouin tribes in the region.  

Though U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who is also serving as the Trump administration’s Syria envoy, claimed that “these atrocities that are happening … are not by Syrian regime troops,” the Syrian Observatory said it documented the massacre of 12 members of one family by Syrian Defense Ministry forces.

Over 150,000 Israelis are members of the Druze religious and ethnic minority. The population is deeply integrated in Israel — most of the men serve in the IDF, including at very high ranks. Israel has committed to protecting the Druze in Syria, and the IDF launched airstrikes in Syria last week, aiming to stop the attacks in Sweida, some 25 miles from the border. As many as 1,000 Israeli Druze illegally crossed into Syria to try to defend their brethren. 

Khalife said that the attacks are “a horrifying act of ethnic cleansing, not just fighting in a war zone. We are witnessing hell on earth in real time, entire villages being invaded and crushed.”

She said that the names and photos of some Druze university students in Damascus have been published on social media with calls to rape, abduct and kill them.

Druze in Israel continue to be in contact with their Syrian counterparts to try to help.

“For the Druze community, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, we are very connected,” Khalife said. “People don’t understand the bond we share. It’s like having a twin, and you can feel their pain.”