Red Cross says team gained access to Syrian flashpoint Sweida, urges sustained aid

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says its team was able to gain access to the southern Syrian city of Sweida, where fighting broke out this month.

The team, which joined a Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) humanitarian convoy sent to the city on Monday, was able to get a firsthand assessment of where the most pressing needs were.

The ICRC says it will continue its efforts for further access to Sweida as well as its support to the ongoing emergency response of the SARC to those most in need in the area.

Clashes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, which began on July 13 and ended with a ceasefire a week later, initially involved Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, who have been at loggerheads for decades.

But government forces intervened on the side of the Bedouin, according to witnesses, experts and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which said the violence killed more than 1,400 people, mostly Druze, and accused government personnel of summarily executing more than 250 Druze civilians.

Israel, which intervened with airstrikes aimed at assisting the Druze community amid the violence, also sent in aid supplies last week.