Egypt’s Al-Azhar warns against Israeli plan of dividing Syria

CAIRO – 17 July 2025: Egypt’s Al-Azhar Sheikhdom, one of the most prominent Islamic institutes in the world, strongly condemned the Israeli attacks on Syria, highlighting how these aggressions reflect that Israel is disseminating chaos and instability in the region.

In a statement released on Thursday, Al-Azhar added that Israel is violating the sovereignty of several Arab countries to drag the whole region to “the edge of an explosion” in a bid to further expand through stealing and occupying more lands amid “usual international silence and flagrant violations to the international law.”

Al-Azhar reminds Syrians that their strength lies in their unity and coexistence with diversity. The Sunni institute called warned all the people against the attempts to drag Syria into a sectarian strife to divide the country, as part of a larger Zionist plan to transform the entire region into a battlefield and a sustainable hotbed of conflict.

Syria was hit by widely-condemned Israeli strikes that targeted sensitive government facilities in Damascus on Wednesday.

Successive Israeli strikes targeted areas around the presidential palace and the Syrian General Staff complex, marking a dangerous escalation in a region already plagued by violent conflicts, all entwined with Israeli involvement. Three people were killed and 43 others were injured in the Israeli strikes on Damascus, according to the latest death toll released by the Syrian Ministry of Health on Wednesday afternoon.

The strikes followed the Sunday clashes in Suwayda between armed Druze and Bedouin groups that led to dozens of fatalities. 

Syrian authorities reported the death of more than 30 people and the injury of nearly 100 others. Meanwhile, war-monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least 203 fatalities, including 92 Druze members, 93 security personnel, and 18 Bedouins.

On Thursday, the governorate of Suwayda saw a state of calm after the Syrian Army forces withdrew as per a ceasefire agreement reached between the Druze community and the government of Syrian interim President Ahmed Al-Shara. However, the Syrian Observatory reported that large-scale displacement of Bedouin tribes was monitored for fear of revenge operations by the Druze after their armed group took over the positions from which the Syrian Army withdrew.