As many as 1,017 people have been killed during clashes, executions and Israeli airstrikes in Syria ahead of a ceasefire today.
Mutilated, decomposing bodies are piling on streets in the southern city of Sweida over the last week as hospitals have run out of space to store the dead.
Fighting between factions of the Druze minority group and Bedouin tribes began last week, drawing in a military intervention from Syrian forces.
On the pretence of defending the Druze fighters, Israel unleashed a series of bombardments on Sweida and the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus on Monday.
Amid the secterian violence, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that the death toll has surpassed 1,000 – with almost half of them civilians.
An estimated 336 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the minority group, as well as 342 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin, have been killed.
Hospitals in Sweida have been inundated and are running out of medical supplies to treat the injured and space to store the bodied of the dead.
A doctor in Sweida said a local hospital was full of bodies and wounded people from days of violence.
‘All the injuries are from bombs, some people with their chests wounded. There are also injuries to limbs from shrapnel,’ said Omar Obeid, director of the hospital.
Syrian television reported that corpses are piled up on streets due to lack of space in morgue refrigerators at National Hospital.
It added: ‘The health situation is getting worse in Sweida Governorate.
‘Hospitals are witnessing a shortage of medical staff and tragic conditions amid a severe shortage of medicines.
‘Water cut off completely from the National Hospital. Corpses are piling up in the National Hospital garden because the refrigerators cannot accommodate the number of corpses.
‘Water cut continues to affect the neighborhoods of Sweida city for the seventh day in a row.
‘Operation of bakeries in the city has stopped except for the health bakery, which is not enough to cover the needs of the population.’
Residents reported calm in Sweida today after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a US envoy signalled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented.
Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa announced that an immediate ceasefire will take place today and urged an immediate end to hostilities.
The interior ministry said internal forces had begun deploying. But there are fears as to how long the deal will remain in place for, despite support from Turkey, Jordan and the US.
Sharaa said Syria would not be a ‘testing ground for partition, secession, or sectarian incitement’.
‘The Israeli intervention pushed the country into a dangerous phase that threatened its stability,’ he said in a televised speech.
The ceasefire involves the deployment of government security forces to Sweida province, and the opening of humanitarian corridors.
It also includes ‘work to secure all detained Bedouin residents in areas controlled by outlaw groups’, the interior ministry said, referring to Druze fighters, as well as the exchange of detainees.
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