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.

Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the country’s Druse minority.

Withdrawal follows announcement of truce, which a Druze spiritual leader says includes 'full integration of the province' into Syrian state, though other community leaders reject it

Here is what we know so far about the sectarian violence in Syria's Sweida province and all that has happened since. The fresh wave of violence in Sweida was the biggest since May. The clashes between the Bedouin and the Druze were triggered by the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant,

Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southern Syria, saying it was acting to protect the Druze minority.

Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city.

And Israeli-backed American organization in Gaza says 20 Palestinians died in a stampede at a food distribution center.

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.

Convoys of Syrian security forces and tank transporters carrying tanks were seen moving outside of Sweida on July 16. Scores of people have been killed this week in violence in and around the predominantly Druze city of Sweida.