Smoke rose from burning houses in south Syria’s Sweida on Saturday and an Arab tribal fighter vowed to “slaughter” residents as deadly clashes with Druze fighters persisted.Just hours earlier, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa had announced an immediate ceasefire, but Bedouins and tribal fighters who are allied with the Syrian authorities pushed on in the west of the Druze-majority city.”Go forward, tribes!” said fighter Abu Jassem, addressing fellow combatants in the area, where the streets were largely deserted.”We will slaughter them in their homes,” he said, referring to the Druze.The tribal fighters have converged on Sweida from other parts of Syria to support the Bedouins who have been clashing with Druze fighters since July 13.The violence has killed at least 940 people, according to a monitor.An AFP correspondent on Saturday saw dozens of torched homes and vehicles and armed men setting fire to shops after looting them.Some fighters, their faces covered, opened fire in the streets with automatic weapons while others moved around on vehicles and motorbikes.One fighter wore a black band around his head that bore the Islamic profession of faith.Another was carrying scissors, after footage in recent days showed fighters cutting the moustaches of Druze elderly and clergy, a grave insult to members of the minority community.The Druze, followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam, are regarded at best with suspicion by more hard-line Sunni Islamists who count among the ranks of Syria’s new authorities.- ‘Nothing left’ -In Sweida city, where around 150,000 people live, residents have been holed up in their homes without electricity and water.Food supplies are scarce despite repeated appeals for humanitarian assistance, and communications have largely been cut off.Near the city’s main hospital, an AFP photographer said bloated bodies were being taken for burial in a nearby pit as the morgue was overflowing.A doctor had told AFP that the facility had received more than 400 bodies.Security forces on Saturday were deploying in the province with the stated aim of protecting civilians and ending the chaos.Near a village north of Sweida, an AFP correspondent saw government forces deploying at a checkpoint and seeking in vain to prevent armed tribal fighters from advancing.Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba told AFP in the province’s north that security forces were deploying “to protect public and private property and guarantee the security of civilians”.Government forces were to “supervise the withdrawal of the tribes that were in battle with outlaw groups,” he added, referring to Druze fighters.An AFP correspondent said some tribal fighters withdrew from the city on Saturday afternoon, and also reported armed men dragging bodies from a street.According to the United Nations, the fighting has displaced at least 87,000 people.In recent days, brutal videos have circulated on social media, some appearing to show the execution of people in civilian clothing and the abuse of elderly Druze clerics, as dozens of people published shocking accounts of the deaths of loved ones.One resident of the city who fled days earlier told AFP that “We have nothing left.””Most of the people we know — our relatives and friends — are dead,” said the resident, requesting anonymity due to the security situation.”Sweida has been destroyed, and we are trying to keep our families away until this madness ends.”strs-lar/lg/ami

Dozens of Syrians from minority communities rallied on Saturday in London and Paris, calling for action to protect the Druze in their Sweida heartland, where sectarian violence has killed hundreds.In central London, around 80 protesters chanted “God protect Druze” and “Stop supporting Jolani”, referring to Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s nom de guerre, which he had abandoned after his Islamist group seized Damascus late last year.Demonstrators in the British capital held up placards calling for an end to the deadly violence in Sweida and for a humanitarian corridor to be opened up via the Jordanian border.More than 900 people have been killed in the Druze-majority province since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.The sectarian clashes between the Druze and Bedouin tribes, who are Sunni Muslim, have drawn in the Islamist-led government as well as Israel and armed tribes from other parts of Syria.In London, protest organiser Emad al Eismy told AFP atrocities were still going on in Sweida.”Shootings, beheadings, raping, killing children, (torching) shops, homes. It’s a barbarian movement going on in Sweida,” he said at the protest outside BBC headquarters.-‘Like ethnic cleansing’ -AFP correspondents in Sweida reported clashes on Saturday, despite a ceasefire ordered by the government following a US-brokered deal to avert further Israeli military intervention.The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said armed volunteers had been deployed with the support of the Islamist-led government.Druze fighters said those who had arrived to support the Bedouin were mostly Islamists.Protester Maan Radwan, who has family in Sweida, fought back tears as he said some of his relatives had died in a massacre at their guesthouse. He reproached British Foreign Secretary David Lammy for his visit to Syria earlier this month, when he met al-Sharaa.The United Nations has called for an end to the bloodshed and demanded an independent investigation of the violence.William Salha, like most of the protesters, also has family members still living in Sweida.He said they were “helpless”, shut in their homes, attempting to keep themselves safe.”It’s like ethnic cleansing. They want the city without its people,” he said, accusing the Syrian government of complicity.A teenager from south London at the protest with his mother said multiple members of his father’s family had been gunned down and killed, with the news filtering out through an aunt.”The armed groups came to them, they tried to resist and they shot them,” he said.- ‘Where is France?’ -At the Paris protest, Aida Haladi wore black and clutched a picture of her 52-year-old brother whom she said was killed in front of his home Thursday morning in Sweida city.She said he had stepped out to grab some blood pressure medication he had forgotten.”He was an honest man. He never tried to hurt a soul,” she said.”Where is France?” Haladi said, accusing Syria’s interim president of complicity and angry at France’s leader Emmanuel Macron for having hosted him in Paris in May.Hours later, France urged all sides to “strictly adhere” to the ceasefire.Eva Radwan, a 41-year-old PhD student, held up a picture of her 34-year-old cousin and his two nephews, aged 13 and 16, who she said had been shot dead inside their home.She said her parents had been forced to move houses after their neighbourhood was bombarded earlier this week.”Jolani get out, Syria is not yours,” she shouted into a megaphone in front of the Eiffel Tower, leading around 20 other protesters.She also called for Jordan to open its border to let in aid.The Observatory said at least 940 people had been killed since Sunday, including 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, 165 of whom were summarily executed.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Saturday that Israeli fire killed 32 people and wounded more than 100 near two aid centres, in the latest deaths of Palestinians seeking food.Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near food points in Gaza have become a regular occurrence, with the territory’s authorities frequently blaming Israeli fire.But the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has replaced UN agencies as the main distributor of aid in the territory, has accused militant group Hamas of fomenting unrest and shooting at civilians.Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the deaths happened near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and another centre northwest of Rafah, both in southern Gaza, attributing the fatalities to “Israeli gunfire”.One witness said he headed to the Al-Tina area of Khan Yunis before dawn with five of his relatives to try to get food when “Israeli soldiers” started shooting.”My relatives and I were unable to get anything,” Abdul Aziz Abed, 37, told AFP. “Every day I go there and all we get is bullets and exhaustion instead of food.”Three other witnesses also accused troops of opening fire.- ‘Warning shots’ -In response, the Israeli military said it “identified suspects who approached them during operational activity in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops”.Soldiers called for them to turn back and “after they did not comply, the troops fired warning shots”, it said, adding that it was aware of the reports about casualties.”The incident is under review. The shots were fired approximately one kilometre (more than half a mile) away from the aid distribution site at nighttime when it’s not active,” it said in a statement.GHF said reports of deaths near its sites were “false”.”We have repeatedly warned aid-seekers not to travel to our sites overnight and early morning hours,” it wrote on X.Elsewhere, the civil defence agency reported that an Israeli strike on a house near Nuseirat, in central Gaza, killed 12 people. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.The war in Gaza, sparked by militant group Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people who live in the coastal territory.Most people have been displaced at least once by the fighting, and doctors and aid agencies say they were seeing the physical and mental health effects of 21 months of war, including more acute malnutrition.The World Food Programme said nearly one in three people in Gaza were not eating for days at a stretch and “thousands” were “on the verge of catastrophic hunger”.The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Saturday said it had enough food for all of Gaza for more than three months but it was stockpiled in warehouses and blocked from being delivered.The free flow of aid into Gaza is a key demand of Hamas in indirect negotiations with Israel for a 60-day ceasefire in the war, alongside a full Israeli military withdrawal.- ‘Agitators’ -After a more than two-month Israeli aid blockade, GHF took over the running of aid distribution in late May, despite criticism from the United Nations which previously coordinated handouts, that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.GHF acknowledged for the first time that 20 people died at its Khan Yunis site on Wednesday but blamed “agitators in the crowd… armed and affiliated with Hamas” for creating “a chaotic and dangerous surge” and firing at aid-seekers.The previous day, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 “in the vicinity of GHF sites”, since it began operating.Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory military action has killed 58,765 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.