Syria's interior ministry spokesperson said yesterday that government forces were not preparing to deploy to Sweida Province, the state news agency reported.
Noureddin al-Baba denied a Reuters report citing an interior ministry media officer as saying security forces were preparing to redeploy to Druze-majority Sweida city to quell fighting involving Bedouin tribes and the Druze, part of a religious minority in Syria that has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
A fragile truce was holding in Syria's south yesterday after a ceasefire announced yesterday briefly ended days of fighting that began when Bedouin and Druze fighters clashed in Sweida province in southern Syria, prompting the Syrian government to send in troops.
The clashes drew in Israel, which said it would not allow Syria's government to deploy troops to the south. Israel hit Syrian troops in Sweida and Syria's defence ministry, and struck close to the presidential palace in Damascus.
Syrian troops withdrew from Sweida after the truce was announced but clashes resumed late on Thursday between the tribal Bedouin fighters and the Druze.
Israel's military carried out new attacks in Sweida province overnight. Israel has vowed to shield the area's Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel's own Druze minority.
The US has said it did not support recent Israeli strikes on Syria.
The US intervened to help secure the earlier truce between government forces and Druze fighters, and the White House said on Thursday that it appeared to be holding.
Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the US, accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority.
Meanwhile, the government hospital in Sweidahas received "more than 400 bodies since Monday morning", including those of women and children, Omar Obeid, a doctor, told AFP yesterday.
"There is no more room in the morgue, the bodies are in the street" in front of the hospital, added Obeid, president of the Sweida branch of the Order of Physicians.
The United Nations refugee agency said it is "very concerned" about the impact of hostilities in Sweida on its aid operations.
"The situation in Sweida is very concerning. It is very difficult for us to operate there ... at the moment our capacity to deliver aid is very limited. We are calling on all parties to allow humanitarian access," UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler told reporters in Geneva yesterday.