Israel launched rare strikes in Damascus on Wednesday in a campaign it said was aimed at defending the Druze community after days of clashes in the southern city of Sweida.

Syrian security forces are deploying in the restive province of Suwayda after days of communal fighting in which hundreds of people have been killed, the country’s interior ministry says.

A tense calm prevails in the city of Al-Suwayda, in southern Syria, on Sunday, with sporadic clashes outside the city despite the ceasefire in effect, a week after sectarian violence between Bedouin and Druze groups.

One day after reaching a ceasefire with Israel, Syrian military forces began moving into the country's Suwayda Governorate, where dozens of people have been killed in recent days amid fighting between warring tribes.

As alarming sectarian violence swept through Syria in the third week of July, Christian communities in the region experienced a new wave of persecution. Attacks on the country's Christian, Druze and Alawite communities were perpetrated mainly by Islamist jihadists.

The southern Syrian city of Suweida has been left devastated after five days of intense sectarian violence and alleged atrocities by government forces and foreign fighters. More than 590 people have been killed since clashes erupted last Sunday between Druze and

Syrian President Sharaa announces troop deployment amid deadly Bedouin-Druze clashes and fragile Israel-brokered ceasefire.