At the main hospital in south Syria's Sweida city, dozens of bodies are still waiting to be identified as the death count of days of sectarian clashes continues to rise.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday that it was "receiving desperate messages of starvation" from its Gaza staff, as the Palestinian territory experiences surging levels of hunger.

By Asher Kaufman, University of Notre Dame

(THE CONVERSATION) A fragile ceasefire was put in place in southern Syria on July 19, 2025, after days of violence between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes that drew in government forces and prompted Israeli strikes on the capital, Damascus, as a warning to pull back from Druze areas. The United States helped broker the latest agreement, fearing a spillover of violence to other parts of Syria.

Syrian authorities on Monday evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted bloody clashes between the communities, an AFP correspondent and official media said.

Israel said its forces struck Yemen's Hodeida port on Monday in the latest attack targeting Houthi rebels, with a security official from the Iran-backed group reporting a dock destroyed.

The Israeli military on Sunday issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip, warning of imminent action against Hamas militants in an area "where it has not operated before."

Calm appeared to have returned to southern Syria's Sweida province on Sunday, a monitor and AFP correspondents reported, after a week of sectarian violence between Druze fighters and rival groups left hundreds dead.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday called on the Syrian government's security forces to prevent jihadists from entering and "carrying out massacres" in the conflict-stricken south of the country.

Syrian security forces have begun deploying in the Druze-majority province of Sweida, where sectarian violence has left more than 700 people dead, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

The United States said early Saturday that it had negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Syria's government as new clashes erupted in Syria's Druze heartland following violence that prompted massive Israeli strikes.

At least 638 people have died since Sunday in violence between the Druze and Bedouins, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, drawing questions over the authority of Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.