Bodies were piled on the floors of rooms inside the National Hospital of Sweida, in the center of this majority-Druze city in southern Syria. Others were lined up in blood-soaked corridors. Kamal, a Druze doctor at the hospital, confirmed to Le Monde the authenticity of scenes shown in two videos filmed on Wednesday, July 16. For security reasons, the names of all witnesses quoted, including Kamal, have been changed. The city, surrounded, is cut off and inaccessible. Caught in the fighting from Tuesday to Thursday that pitted government forces, backed by tribal fighters, against Druze factions, the medical team had to operate without electricity, without water and with only the remaining medical supplies.

"Most of the bodies are those of civilians. We had nowhere left to put them. Since then, the number has increased even more. There are at least 200, maybe 300, including at least 21 women and 45 children," Kamal said by phone on Thursday evening. The victims were killed by artillery fire, sniper fire and, in some cases, summary executions. The doctor accused government forces, who took control of the neighborhood on Wednesday, of attacking the hospital before withdrawing from Sweida at midnight. "They placed two tanks in front of the hospital and started shelling us until an RPG round destroyed one of the tanks," the doctor said.

"Anyone who tried to bring the wounded to the hospital was targeted by the tanks and snipers. The soldiers told us: 'If you leave the room, you'll be shot. If you hide anyone, you'll be executed.' They asked us if we were Druze or Muslim," Kamal continued. He said that a young man helping the medical staff was shot dead because he stood up to the soldiers. Two doctors, Faten Hilal and Talaat Fawzi Amer, were killed by snipers near the hospital.

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