From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 15, 2026
In historic first, Netanyahu reveals he spoke to Syria’s Sharaa in 2025 after Israel bombed Damascus
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reveals that he spoke with Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa shortly after Israel bombed the Syrian Defense Ministry and struck near the presidential palace in Damascus in July 2025.
The announcement is the first report of a conversation between Netanyahu and the Syrian president, who took power in late 2024 after deposing longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. It may be the first time ever that leaders of Israel and Syria, which have fought multiple wars with each other and do not have diplomatic relations, have spoken directly.
“I picked up the phone to Sharaa,” Netanyahu says at a Likud conference for the Druze community. “It was a very short and very sharp conversation. And the slaughter [of Druze in Syria] stopped.”
Israel said the bombing was meant to protect Druze in southern Syria, amid sectarian conflict in the Druze-majority area of Sweida.
“I will do everything I can to protect our brothers and your brothers,” he tells the conference.
Israel and the Sharaa government have engaged in discussions over a security deal. Syria is demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from a buffer zone the IDF has held on the border since Assad’s ouster.
The Times of Israel Community.