State Secretary Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he believed that Israel’s strike in the Syrian capital Damascus was probably a misunderstanding “in the midst of concern about unrest that broke out this week.
“It is complicated,” Rubio told reporters after President Donald Trump asked him to take a question by a reporter in the Oval Office in the midst of a bilateral meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
“These are historic long -term rivalry between different groups in southwestern Syria,” said Rubio, in reference to collisions between the Druze, a monotheistic religion rooted in Abrahamic beliefs, and the Bedouins, a Sunnis -based tribal group. And it led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it seems that, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side. “
US President Donald Trump listens to State Secretary Marco Rubio speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty images)
Israel hits Syria’s military headquarters while the regime clashes with Druze -Burgers
Rubio said he had been in communication with both parties since the fighting broke out, which is when the US is looking for Syria as a beacon of hope in the Middle East after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December.
Reports on Wednesday said that the Israeli strikes have caused damage to the head office of the Syrian Ministry of Defense and resulted in the death of three people and almost three dozen injured others.
Israel took action to defend the Druzen in southwestern Syria in a region on the border with the Golan Heights – an area that maintains the UN is Syrian territory, but that Israel annexed in the early 80s – after the Syrian government apparently was seen as aimed at the Druze Minority Group.
The concern about minority rights have increased since the takeover of December by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former terrorist organization, but whose designation was removed by the Trump administration earlier this month.
Members of the media photograph the aftermath of an Israeli air raid at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense on July 16, 2025 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty images)
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The Druze community – which can largely be found in parts of Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Syria – was reportedly attacked this week by first Bedouin Milities and then Syrian government forces.
Reporting by the Associated Press said that the collisions in southern Syria broke out for the first time after a Druze man was attacked and robbed as he stopped at a Bedouin checkpoint in the province of Sweida.
Brutal Tit-for-Tat attacks were reportedly followed, and the government sent into force to get control of the situation, although reports suggest that citizens continue to experience brutal situations with death toll, ranging between 30 and 90 people who were killed this week.
But images and reports apparently came to suggest that the government forces not only started attacking Druze communities by burning and plundering their houses, but were also aimed at drown men by publicly humiliating them and shaving their mustaches.
Israeli Druze crosses the border near Majdal Shams in a show of support for the Druze community in Hader on the Syrian side on July 16, 2025. (Ilia Yefimovich/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
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“We think that we are on our way to, real de-escalation and hopefully get back on the right track and help Syria to build a country,” Rubio told reporters, which is part of the general goal of the administration to stabilize the relationships in the Middle East, especially with Israel.
“In the coming hours we hope to see some real progress to put an end to what you have seen in recent hours,” the secretary added.
