Suweida: Mass Displacement and Systematic HLP Violations

In July, Suweida governorate witnessed a military campaign carried out by the defence and interior ministries of the Transitional Administration, supported by Salafist and tribal militias. The campaign targeted military sites and armed groups as well as civilian areas. It was accompanied by house raids, burning, and demolition with bulldozers. The destruction extended to hospitals and health facilities, water and electricity networks, farms, irrigation wells, and mills, revealing a recurring pattern that stripped residents of the essentials of life.

On August 21, U.N. experts issued a special report expressing “deep concern” over the wave of armed attacks targeting Druze communities in Suweida. The report documented killings, summary executions, kidnappings, looting, and widespread destruction of property, alongside sexual assaults and gender-based violence against women and girls. It stressed that the violations in Suweida directly affected residents’ housing, land and property (HLP) rights.

Experts recorded the complete burning of more than 33 villages, the looting of homes, shops and their contents, the seizure of livestock, and the destruction of crops. The report also highlighted that this systematic destruction of homes and farms was accompanied by widespread disruption of essential services such as electricity, water, and health. The experts considered these practices part of an organised campaign that went beyond physical violence, deliberately targeting livelihoods and people’s ability to remain on their land.

According to reports by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 184,000 people had been displaced by August 19. The majority of them remained inside Suweida, living in temporary shelters such as schools and community centres, amid worsening shortages of basic services. OCHA, together with other organisations, also launched a mission to the neighbouring Daraa governorate to assess the conditions of displaced persons there and to discuss options for resettlement in the near future. Meanwhile, efforts to repair electricity and water networks inside Suweida remained limited and temporary due to the complex situation on the ground.

With direct media and human rights access still blocked to the western and northern countryside of Suweida – areas still under the control of the Transitional Administration’s forces – this article relies on field testimonies on those areas gathered by The Syria Report’s local correspondent from residents and survivors of displacement. These testimonies document violations that went beyond killing and destruction, reaching into HLP rights and the very basis of livelihoods.

In western Suweida, known as Al-Muqran Al-Gharbi, between July 13 and 16, the transitional administration forces shelled the residential areas in villages and towns, even though they had not witnessed fighting. The shelling caused mass displacement towards Suweida city and the southern countryside of the governorate. Afterwards came systemic looting of homes, followed by burning and demolition with bulldozers. “Bulldozers began flattening houses to the ground just a few days after people left. They did not leave a single house standing in the northern neighbourhoods of the village,” a resident from the village of Al-Dour, who witnessed first-hand the deployment of governmental forces, explained.  “It seems to me the goal was to prevent people from returning. I saw with my own eyes whole houses levelled, including those built of reinforced concrete,” he added.

Fighters also deliberately targeted essential infrastructure such as water and electricity networks, making it difficult for many residents to return to normal life in these villages.

Rona, from the village of Reema Hazem, explained that the village’s main water well was completely demolished. “Water pumps and the small electricity generators people depended on were burned. Even what remained of the network became unusable,” Rona said.

Hamza, also from Reema Hazem, said that “after looting shops, houses and workshops, government forces used a strange type of explosive that created a violent blast and caused huge fires.” He added: “Some houses were burned with their residents inside. Large vehicles in the village were stolen, water tanks were removed from rooftops and loaded onto trucks, even fuel was drained from petrol stations, which were then set on fire.” Farmers in Al-Muqran Al-Gharbi reported that the heavy shelling destroyed electricity poles and transformers, plunging the area into complete darkness.

In Reema Hazem, violations went further than looting property or destroying farms. Soldiers also interfered with the village’s historical landmarks, digging inside the old wall in search of gold. The village is known as an ancient site where Jewish, Roman and Byzantine civilisations succeeded one another. Eyewitnesses told The Syria Report that soldiers of the Transitional Administration positioned about 30 remaining villagers – including Christians, elderly people, and women – around the excavation site as human shields to prevent Druze fighters from neighbouring villages from shooting at the bulldozers while they searched for artefacts.

Agriculture, the main source of livelihood in Al-Muqran Al-Gharbi, was also not spared. Residents reported large-scale looting, burning and systematic destruction of farms, threatening food security and survival. Maen, a farmer from Al-Mazraa and owner of an agricultural nursery, recounted: “They entered the farm after we barely managed to escape and took everything. The cows were taken away in military trucks. What remained of the livestock was either slaughtered or left to starve. All the poultry was burned alive.” He added: “Neighbouring irrigated projects, especially vegetable farms, were looted and destroyed. Drip irrigation networks, fertilisers, and farming equipment were all stolen. Even the nursery that took me years to build was completely destroyed.”

In northern Suweida, known as the Al-Liwa area, the same scene was repeated: shelling and displacement turned emptied villages into uninhabitable places. Residents of the village of Al-Khalidiya described how mortar fire directly hit civilian homes: “Shells fell on houses, destroying dozens and displacing their inhabitants.” In Lahtha, locals reported that shelling directly struck homes, destroying many, especially those near the main road.

Farmers from the village of Umm Al-Zeitoun in the north confirmed that artillery fire hit the central irrigation network that had supplied hundreds of dunums planted with wheat, barley, and vegetables. Large agricultural projects in Rudeima Al-Liwa and Al-Matouna in the Al-Liwa area were also destroyed, either by direct shelling or looting and vandalism after raids. Saud, from the village of Al-Soura Al-Sughra in northern Suweida, recounted: “We lived off olive and wheat farming for decades. Today nothing remains. Wells have been destroyed, irrigation networks ruined, and lands abandoned after their owners fled. This is not a war against fighters – it is a war against our livelihood.”

Rami, from the village of Qanawat, far from the advance of the Transitional Administration’s forces, said there was no justification for the shelling. “Missiles hit homes in the middle of the village, collapsing dozens of houses. A drone strike hit a residential area at the village entrance, destroying almost an entire building, while a Shaheen aircraft bombed a school in the town centre.” Roshdi, another witness, added: “The shelling struck around the old churches and stone basins. It was indiscriminate, using inaccurate weapons intended only for destruction, with drones giving special focus to some sites.”

In Suweida city, residents of neighbourhoods near the National Hospital reported severe damage to residential buildings from repeated mortar and “Grad” rocket fire. From Haret Al-Khazanat, others said the heavy shelling forced many people to flee. Hassan, from the Kuwait Street neighbourhood, recalled: “We endured long days and nights of shelling by Grad rockets, mortar shells and drone bombs. In one day alone I counted more than a hundred shells and rockets around us. One hit my neighbour’s roof, partly collapsing the house and forcing him to flee to the city of Salkhad in the south.”

Fajr, who fled to his relatives’ home in Douar Al-Omran in Suweida city, recounted what happened after the Transitional Administration’s forces entered: “The houses were completely searched. They looted anything that could be moved – furniture, electrical appliances, even doors and windows. Then some houses were blown up and others set on fire.” He gave a detailed account of the Saraya family, who were executed in Tishreen Square: “After the family was killed, the General Security forces entered their home in Douar Al-Omran. They looted everything, even clothes and kitchenware. A few days later, the house was burned completely. The aim was clear: to erase any trace of the family.”

These field testimonies, alongside the U.N. experts’ report on August 21, make clear that the violations in Suweida directly targeted residents’ HLP rights and their livelihoods. Bulldozing homes, burning villages, looting farms, water wells, and mills were not mere side effects of war, but a deliberate policy that deprived people of their homes, lands, and means of survival, and forced them into displacement. These violations strike at the very heart of the right to remain and live on the land, posing a permanent threat to the possibility of return and to the stability of the local community.