Rubio says that the Israeli strike on Damascus was “a misunderstanding” in the middle of the Peace of Peace

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he thought that Israel’s strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus was “probably a misunderstanding” in the midst of concerns about the disorders that broke out this week.

“It’s complicated,” Rubio told journalists after President Donald Trump asked him to take a question by a journalist in the oval office in the midst of a bilateral meeting with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa.

“These are longtime historical rivalries between different groups in southwest Syria,” said Rubio, in reference to clashes between the Druze, a monotheistic religion rooted in Abrahamic beliefs, and Bedouin, which is a low-based tribal group. And that led to an unhappy situation and a misunderstanding, it seems that, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side. “”

US President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a meeting at the White House Oval Office in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)

Israel strikes the military seat of Syria while the regime comes up against civilians Druze

Rubio said he was in communication with the two parties since the fighting broke out, which came when the United States sought to see Syria emerging as a headlight of hope in the Middle East after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December.

Information said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes damaged the headquarters of the Syrian Defense Ministry and led to the death of three people and injured nearly three dozen others.

Israel has taken measures to defend the Druze in southwest Syria in a region on the border with the Golan Heights – an area that the UN maintains is Syrian territory, but which Israel annexed in the early 1980s – after the Syrian government was apparently considered targeting the minority group of Druze.

The concerns about the rights of minorities have increased since the takeover of December by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a former terrorist organization, but whose designation was deleted by the Trump administration earlier this month.

Media members photograph the consequences of an Israeli air strike on the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense of Syria on July 16, 2025 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman / Getty Images)

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The community of Druze – which is largely found in certain parts of Lebanon, Golan Heights and Syria – would have been subjected to increased attacks this week by the first Bedouin militias, then the Syrian government forces.

Reports by the Associated Press said that clashes in southern Syria broke out for the first time after a Druze man had been attacked and stolen when he stopped at a Bedouin checkpoint in Sweida province.

Brutal attacks of Tit-For-Tat would then have followed, and the government sent forces to take control of the situation, although reports suggest that civilians have continued to deal with brutal situations with dormters of death going between 30 and 90 people killed this week.

But images and reports have apparently surfaced to suggest that government forces had not only started to attack the communities of Druze by burning and looting their houses, but also to target Druze men by publicly humiliating them and by streaming their mustaches.

The Israeli Druze cross the border near Majdal Shams in a demonstration of support for the Druze community in Hader on the Syrian side on July 16, 2025. (Ilia Yefimovich / Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

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“We think we are on the way to, a real de-escalation, then we hope to get back on the right track and help Syria build a country,” Rubio told journalists, who is part of the overall objective of the administration to stabilize relations in the Middle East, in particular with Israel.

“In the coming hours, we hope to see real progress to put an end to what you have seen in the past hours,” added the secretary.

Ruth Marks of Fox News, Eglash, contributed to this report.