Mass grave: Medics call for aid at Syria’s last working hospital in Sweida
In the heart of Sweida, the morgue has become a mass grave
For nearly a week, the Druze‑majority city of Sweida has been engulfed by violent clashes that have brought the state’s sole government hospital to a breaking point.
Staff are overwhelmed by the flood of bodies
“The hospital is no longer a place of healing – it’s a cemetery,” one nurse, who asked to remain anonymous, wept as she pleaded for aid.
Dr. Omar Obeid, who directs the Sweida division of Syria’s Order of Physicians, reported that the facility has received “more than 400 bodies since Monday morning,” with victims ranging from women and children to elderly men. “There’s no more space in the morgue, the bodies are out on the street in front of the hospital,” he added.
Origins of the fighting
Sunday night, Druze fighters clashed with local Bedouin tribes. Syrian government forces intervened on Tuesday to quell the violence, but reports from rights organisations and Druze groups accuse those forces of carrying out serious abuses against the minority.
On Thursday, the government forces withdrew from Sweida following threats from Israel, which vowed to protect the Druze.
Stench and exhaustion inside the hospital
AFP’s correspondent described the corridors as suffused by the stench of bloated bodies that had ‘bloomed beyond recognition.’ Despite the appalling conditions, the small number of medical staff – nine doctors and nurses – were seen rushing patients into waiting hallways.
“We have no water or electricity. Medicines are running out,” one nurse stressed. “People have been at home for three days, and we cannot manage to rescue them. Yesterday, five big cars filled with bodies arrived at the hospital. There are women, children, and people whose identities are unknown, with cut‑off arms or legs.”
International response and casualties
The United Nations called for an end to the bloodshed on Friday, urging “independent, prompt and transparent investigations into all violations.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the violence has claimed nearly 600 lives since Sunday.
Dr. Obeid told AFP that three of his colleagues were killed, including one who was shot dead in his home in front of his family. Another was shot in her car while driving through a security checkpoint. The third, surgeon Talaat Amer, was killed while he was at the hospital on Tuesday, wearing a blue surgical gown to perform his duty. “They shot him in the head. Then they called his wife and told her: your husband was wearing a surgical cap— it’s red now.”
In Sweida, the line between healing and loss has become a tragic reality, as the city’s fragile community faces the aftermath of a week of violence that has turned a hospital into a mass grave.
