{"id":59275,"date":"2025-07-22T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/they-shot-patients-in-beds-bbc-hears-claims-of-massacre-at-suweida-hospital\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T19:02:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T19:02:00","slug":"they-shot-patients-in-beds-bbc-hears-claims-of-massacre-at-suweida-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=59275","title":{"rendered":"‘They shot patients in beds’ \u2013 BBC hears claims of massacre at Suweida hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BBC \/ Jon Donnison<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The outbreak of violence in southern Syria’s Druze-majority Suweida province has caused alarm in recent days<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Syrian government forces have been accused of carrying out a massacre at a hospital during sectarian clashes which erupted just over a week ago. <\/p>\n
The BBC has visited Suweida’s National Hospital, where staff claim patients were killed inside wards.<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains descriptions of violence<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The stench hit me before anything else.<\/p>\n
In the car park of the main hospital in Suweida city, dozens of decomposing corpses are lined up in white plastic body bags.<\/p>\n
Some are open to the elements, revealing bloated and mutilated remains of those who were killed here.<\/p>\n
The tarmac beneath my feet is greasy and slippery with blood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In the sweltering sun, the smell is overwhelming.<\/p>\n
“It was a massacre,” Dr Wissam Massoud, a neurosurgeon at the hospital, tells me.<\/p>\n
“The soldiers came here saying they wanted to bring peace, but they killed scores of patients, from the very young to the very old.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Dr Massoud sent me a video which he said was in the immediate aftermath of the government raid.<\/p>\n
In it, a woman shows you around the hospital. On the ground in the wards are dozens of dead patients still bundled up in their bloodied bed sheets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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BBC \/ Jon Donnison<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Hospital volunteer Kiness Abu Motab said the victims’ were killed because they were in a minority group<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Everyone here, doctors, nurses, volunteers say the same thing.<\/p>\n
That last Wednesday evening, it was Syrian government troops targeting the Druze religious community who came to the hospital and carried out the killings.<\/p>\n
Kiness Abu Motab, a volunteer at the hospital, said of the victims: “What is their crime? Just for being a minority in a democratic country?”<\/p>\n
“They are criminals. They are monsters. We don’t trust them at all,” Osama Malak an English teacher in the city told me outside the hospital gates.<\/p>\n
“They shot an eight-year-old disabled boy in the head,” he said.<\/p>\n
“According to international law, hospitals should be protected. But they attacked us even in the hospitals.<\/p>\n
“They entered the hospital. They started shooting everybody. They shot the patients in their beds as they slept.”<\/p>\n
All sides in this conflict have been accusing each other of committing atrocities.<\/p>\n
Both Bedouin and Druze fighters as well as the Syrian army have been accused of killing civilians and extra judicial killings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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There is not yet a clear picture of what happened at the hospital. Some here estimate the number of people to be killed last Wednesday at more than 300 but that figure cannot be verified.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night the Syrian defence ministry said in a statement that it was aware of reports of “shocking violations” by people wearing military fatigues in the country’s predominantly Druze city of Suweida.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Raed Saleh, the Syrian Minister for Disaster Management and Emergency Response, told me that any allegations of atrocities committed by all sides would be fully investigated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Access to Suweida city has been heavily restricted, meaning gathering first hand evidence has been difficult.<\/p>\n
The city is in effect under siege, with Syrian government forces restricting who is allowed in and out.<\/p>\n
To get in, we had to pass through numerous checkpoints.<\/p>\n
As we entered the city, we passed burned out shops and buildings, and cars that had been crushed by tanks.<\/p>\n
Suweida city had clearly seen a serious battle between Druze and Bedouin fighters.<\/p>\n
It was at that point that the Syrian government first intervened to try and enforce a ceasefire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Watch: BBC report from last checkpoint before Suweida city<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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Although numerous Druze villages in Suweida province have been recaptured by government forces, the city, home to more than 70,000 people, remains under full Druze control.<\/p>\n
Before we left the hospital, we found eight-year-old Hala al-Khatib sitting on a bench with her aunt.<\/p>\n
Hala’s face is bloodied and bandaged. She appears to have lost an eye.<\/p>\n
She tells us that gunmen came and shot her in the head at she was hiding in a cupboard in her home.<\/p>\n
Hala doesn’t know it yet, but both her parents are dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/167e\/live\/cf81e5e0-671b-11f0-8139-991899391ed8.jpg.webp\")
BBC \/ Jon Donnison<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250711-084946-a521911844-web-2.25.0-9\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/edbf\/live\/41e07660-671c-11f0-8139-991899391ed8.jpg.webp\")
BBC \/ Jon Donnison<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n