Three days of clashes between Bedouin tribes and local fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda in southern Syria left some 300 dead before a ceasefire was brokered by the government July 16. Amid the fighting, Israeli warplanes bombed Syrian government tanks as they advanced on Suwayda, and also struck military targets around Damascus—including the defense ministry building. Some 1,000 Israeli Druze also amassed on the Purple Line, separating Israeli-controlled and Syrian-controlled territory in the Golan Heights, saying they were prepared to cross over to protect their bretheren in Suwayda. IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal As'ad, a prominent member of Israel's Druze community, accused Syrian transitional president Ahmed al-Sharaa of seeking to "eliminate the Druze," and criticized Israel for seeking peace with Damascus even amid the attacks. (ToI, ToI, Al Jazeera, DW, TNA)

On July 9, Amnesty International urged Syria's transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, to ensure the publication of all the findings of a fact-finding committee's investigation into the targeted killings of members of Syria's Alawite minority.

Amnesty's deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Kirstine Beckerle, said: "Survivors and the families of victims have the right to know what happened, who was responsible, and what concrete steps the authorities will take to deliver justice. Only independent and impartial investigations can lead to credible and fair trials." Amnesty also urged the Syrian government to ensure that effective reparations are provided for the affected families.

US President Donald Trump on June 30 signed an executive order that terminates the majority of US sanctions imposed on Syria and associated designated persons, effective July 1. Lifting of the sanctions will represent a significant opportunity for the ravaged Syrian economy. Sanctions against people and entities tied to the ousted Bashar Assad regime, terrorist organizations, and human rights abusers will remain in place.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported June 12 that forced displacement has doubled globally in the last decade, while "brutal" funding cuts mean a lack of resources to accommodate the increased number of displaced people dependent on the UNHCR for support. The agency said the increase has been "largely driven by protracted conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine," with a total of 123.2 million people displaced worldwide at the end of 2024. 

Presumed ISIS militants attacked a police station of the Kurdish autonomous administration at al-Sabha in Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor province June 8. The attack with grenades and small arms was repulsed by the local Asayish police force without loss of life. But this was only the latest in a spate of new ISIS attacks in Syria. In a first attack on central government forces since the ouster the Assad dictatorship last December, ISIS boasted in a communique May 31 that its fighters had killed several soldiers of the "the apostate Syrian regime" at a road checkpoint in Talul al-Safa, in southern Suwayda province. That same day, one member of the Free Syrian Army was killed in an ambush by ISIS militants on an FSA patrol in al-Tanf Deconfliction Zone, a US military outpost near the Jordan border. (Rudaw, Kurdistan4, CNN)

Nearly 40,000 people have fled Syria's sectarian violence for neighboring Lebanon over the past three months. With many fearful of returning anytime soon, their arrival adds a new layer to Lebanon's protracted humanitarian crisis at a moment when aid groups are badly underfunded and overstretched.

Amid the hype about how Trump "snubbed" Netanyahu on his Middle East trip come reports that his White House is pushing a plan to relocate some 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya—which is in the midst of a massive human rights crisis. Even while on the ground in Qatar, Trump plugged his relocation scheme for the Gazans, who now face complete ethnic cleansing from the devastated Strip. In Episode 279 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg debunks the notion of a Trump tilt away from Israel, and asks why some "progressives" are joining with paleocons to view massive arms deals with the repressive and arch-reactionary monarchies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar as a good thing. 

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) held its 12th Congress between May 5 and 7, where delegates voted to dissolve the group's organizational structure and end the armed struggle against the Turkish state that it has waged since 1984. The congress was convened in response to the "Call for Peace and a Democratic Society" issued in February by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan ("Apo"), who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999. The statement called for his followers to lay down arms and pursue a civil struggle for Kurdish rights. The 232 delegates at the 12th Congress held a collective oath-taking ceremony in which they pledged to "intensify the struggle for the freedom of the Kurdish people," and to "fight against the male-dominated civilization and the statist system" and for "a democratic society based on the Apoist line."