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.

MK Hamad Amar, a Druze lawmaker for Yisrael Beytenu, crossed into Syria earlier today as part of a coordinated effort with Israeli security forces to appeal for Druze youth to return to Israel, after they crossed the border in their hundreds in an attempt to assist their Syrian counterparts amid deadly sectarian violence.

In Syria's Druze-majority city of Sweida, residents said they have been living in terror since the arrival of government forces who have been carrying out what witnesses and a war monitor have called summary executions.

Syrian officials and Druze leaders announced a new ceasefire on Wednesday evening following the breakdown of a previous truce. Clashes had raged across the southern Syrian city of Sweida for most of Wednesday --- with Israel threatened to escalate its involvement in support of the Druze religious minority.

"Silence and standing idly by are no longer an option,” Druze leader Sheikh Mowafak Tarif wrote. Israel's Druze spiritual leadership called on its community to prepare to assist their Syrian counterparts “by all means necessary,

Syrian officials and Druze leaders announce new ceasefire after days of fighting, following breakdown of previous truce.

Israel launched powerful airstrikes in Damascus on Wednesday, damaging the defence ministry and hitting near the presidential palace as it vowed to destroy Syrian government forces attacking Druze communities in southern Syria and demanded they withdraw.

Hundreds of members of the Druze community in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and villages in northern Israel gathered along the border fence with Syria, trying to enter the country as clashes between government forces and Syria's Druze factions intensify.