The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.

Convoys of Syrian security forces were seen moving outside of Sweida on Wednesday (July 16) night. Scores of people have been killed this week in violence in and around the predominantly Druze city, pitting fighters from the Druze minority against government security forces and members of Bedouin tribes.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Israel bombed the Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the country's Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community's southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes.

Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border amid ongoing clashes in Sweida in southern Syria on Wednesday afternoon.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the IDF had undertaken 160 aerial attacks on Syrian regime forces in and around the vicinity of Sweida in southern Syria, where Israel says the regime's forces are slaughtering Syrian-Druze.

Clashes have erupted in Sweida, southern Syria, following a ceasefire breakdown between government forces and Druze armed groups. Israel threatens further involvement supporting the Druze minority, executing airstrikes near Damascus.

Dozens of wounded and dead arrived at a hospital in Al-Mazraa in Syria's southern Sweida province on Tuesday following clashes between local militias, clans and government forces.