Netanyahu reveals he gave Syria’s Sharaa ultimatum to stop attacks on Druze in 2025 phone call

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that he spoke with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the phone in the summer of 2025 before ordering the IDF to conduct airstrikes to stop the slaughter among southern Syria’s Druze community.

The comments came as Netanyahu met Druze supporters at a conference hosted by his Likud party in the majority-Druze town of Yarka, in northern Israel. Many parties, including the Likud, have historically held a preserved spot for a Druze candidate. Currently, Yarka-born Afif Abed serves as a Knesset Member for the Likud.

The Druze in Syria and Israel have close ties, and Israeli Druze leaders at the time pressured the government to intervene in the slaughter of the Druze in the southern Syrian town of Suwayda in July 2025, in which government troops took part.

“I picked up the phone to Sharaa,” Netanyahu told the audience, “It was a very short and very sharp conversation. And the slaughter stopped.”

“I will do everything I can to protect our brothers and your brothers,” he vowed.

I24 News later cited parts of the conversation, which the outlet said was included in protocols from the State Comptroller seen by i24 News.

According to the report, Netanyahu called Sharaa at around 1:30 p.m., telling him: “I want to be brief. Apparently the message via the mediators didn't get through properly. A genocide is being committed against the Druze. By 10 p.m. your forces must withdraw from Suwayda.”

“I had hoped our conversation would go differently,” Sharaa said.

Netanyahu: “I'm calling on you to withdraw your forces, or we will intensify our strikes.”

Sharaa replied, “I need 48 hours.”

“That’s unacceptable. Withdraw the forces first,” Netanyahu concluded. Several hours later, the Israeli Air Force conducted strikes on the Syrian Presidential Palace and the General Staff headquarters in Damascus.

The attacking forces, which included units from the new government under self-declared President al-Sharaa as well as Bedouin gunmen, later withdrew, though they still hold the Suweida region, known as the “Mountain of the Druze,” under a quasi-siege.

Local sources put the death toll from the attack and resulting fighting at almost 2,000, including at least 789 Druze civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog.

Some 150,000 Druze live in Israel, with the community based in the Galilee having a long tradition of military service and producing many high-ranking officers, including generals.

One of the three major spiritual leaders of Syria's Druze, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, has pursued a markedly pro-Israel policy in recent years and thanked Israel for saving his community.

On the first anniversary of the massacre, Hijri declared it “an integral part of the State of Israel,” praising its model of state-building and saying their communities shared “common denominators.”

Despite ongoing tensions between Damascus and Jerusalem, the U.S. Trump administration has continued mediating negotiations and pushing for a security arrangement between the countries, with the goal of eventually reaching a full-blown peace agreement.

Sharaa recently referred to the Israeli strikes on the presidential palace as "indiscriminate bombing."

He also accused Israel of pulling back every time the sides approached an agreement, claiming, “There were several sessions of negotiations with Israel, and we almost reached 90% of agreements… We are still engaging in this track.”