Israeli warnings that Syrian regime proxies plan to renew attacks on the Druze in Sweida, southern Syria, topped the Syrian scene, according to the Hebrew Walla website. Messages were conveyed to the Syrian regime expressing Israel's displeasure at any attempt to harm the Druze, while a senior security official said Israel monitors the situation around the clock and does not intend to be lenient in supporting the Druze against any attempt to commit a massacre or kidnapping. Media outlets loyal to the Syrian regime accused Israel of transferring weapons, ammunition, money and intelligence to Druze factions in Sweida. Meanwhile, the Sweida security director told Al Arabiya that the security apparatus had committed to handing over prisoners in accordance with concluded agreements, without details on their identities or the party to which they would be handed over.
In a related context, Syria witnessed on Friday 24 October exceptional protests in Daraa, Quneitra, Damascus, Homs, Idlib and Hasakah against Israeli military operations, marked by their geographic breadth and emphasis on national unity and Syrian sovereignty, according to the Hebrew Institute for National Security Studies. The institute noted that nearly two years of Israeli military presence in southern Syria left a cumulative cost including village raids, arrests, disruption of daily life and deadly gunfire, including the killing of a young man with Down syndrome, and warned about continued friction.
Separately, a report by the IMPACT-se institute, after examining 130 Syrian textbooks for grades one to twelve for the 2025-2026 school year, revealed a major ideological shift in curricula under Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with images of Bashar al-Assad and symbols of his regime removed and Arab nationalism replaced by an Islamic focus on jihad, martyrs and armed struggle. The report said fourth-grade students are taught that defending the homeland and holy sites is a path to escape hellfire, with an image of a soldier carrying a rifle alongside the text.
In security and media developments, pages attributed to the Syrian army under the al-Julani regime published a simulation video depicting jihadists invading the Golan Heights under the title 'And we will see it soon', showing convoys of armored vehicles and motorcycles crossing the entrance sign to the Heights, storming the gate of an Israeli military site, capturing soldiers and raising the 'Tawhid' banner. A private Syrian company also displayed Syrian-made armored vehicles at an arms and security exhibition, sold to Syrian security forces and exported. An analysis by a Hebrew page named Hannanel Aviv viewed 'al-Julani's Syria' as a hostile state founded on the ideology of al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas schools, citing a school named Gaza and classes named after martyrs such as Mohammed al-Durra and Ali Nisman.