[28] The shelling was part of preparations for an upcoming offensive against the rebels in Daraa, and the government deployed forces including Hezbollah and Shiite Iraqi militias as well as the army’s elite 4th Armored Division.

According to pro-government sources, some of these were as a result of a direct rocket strike on a rebel headquarters[31][32][33] amid an intensified bombing campaign by the Army.

[37] On the same day, a government missile hit the civil defense center in the city, rendering the building and one ambulance inoperable, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

[4] It was reported by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that in the first week of the offensive, government forces had dropped more than 300 barrel bombs and fired 350 surface-to-surface missiles on the rebel-held part of the city.

[38] On 14 June, citizen journalists reported 10-12 civilians killed in Syrian-Russian airstrikes and artillery attacks that hit a school housing IDPs, in Tafas, on the northern edge of Daraa, a strike later verified by Human Rights Watch.

[41] Clashes also took place near a former air defence base southwest of the city and near the border with Jordan, which was briefly captured by government forces, potentially splitting rebel territory in the Daraa Governorate in two, but were repelled.

[41][42] On 23 June, an attempt at a reconciliation deal fell apart, thus the Syrian Army resumed their offensive in the Palestinian Camp district, accompanied by airstrikes.