Even before the sun had risen on Thursday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa had already made several announcements on national television.

In a dawn speech, he said that the internal unrest between Sunni Bedouins and the Druze minority, resulting in the deaths of around 360 people in the southern province of Sweida, had ended. He also confirmed government forces were no longer deployed in the area.

Al-Sharaa then underscored his commitment to protect the rights and freedoms of the Druze community and reaffirmed their place in Syrian society.

But the main part of his speech was directed at Syria's neighbor Israel.

This week, Israel launched attacks on Syrian government buildings in Damascus and Syrian troops in the Sweida region, resulting in the deaths of 20 people.

According to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the attacks were necessary "to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the gangs of the regime."

Yet, in al-Sharaa's view, Israel was only exploiting the unrest by targeting civilian infrastructure and seeking to derail peace and reconstruction efforts in his country.

"We, the people of Syria, know very well who is trying to drag us into war and who is working to divide us," al-Sharaa said, adding that "we will not give them the opportunity to entangle our people in a war that serves only to........

© Deutsche Welle