Israel launched an airstrike on the army headquarters in Damascus, the capital of Syria, on Wednesday. According to the BBC, Israel attacked the minority Druze community in Sweida, a province in the south-west of Syria. The Ministry of Health of Syria informed that 18 people were injured in the attack by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he is working to "protect the brothers of the Druze community and eliminate the gangs that rule Syria." He has also asked the members of the Druze community in his country not to cross the border and go to Syria. Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz has informed that the warning time is over. "Now there will be a hard and painful attack," he said. 

Syria has condemned the Israeli attack. "Israel's attack is a criminal and illegal behavior," the Syrian Interior Ministry said. Syria says Israel's attack violates international law and violates the ceasefire. US Ambassador to Syria Tom Barak said that Washington is in contact with all sides for peace and cooperation.

Syrian defense officials announced a full ceasefire in Sweida on Tuesday. According to Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Kasra, the ceasefire was announced after the latest clashes between local Druze armed groups, Bedouin tribes and the forces of the interim government. Syrian army units began withdrawing heavy military vehicles from Sweida in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire was announced after a sharp increase in violence over the weekend.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 99 people have been killed and nearly 200 injured in the clashes in Sweida in two days. Among the dead are 60 Druze civilians. Among them are two women and two children, 18 Bedouins, 14 soldiers of the interim government and 7 unidentified people wearing military uniforms. Defense spokesman Hassan Abdel Ghani said 18 soldiers were killed in the attack by the illegal armed group.

Even after the ceasefire was declared, the armed groups started attacking the security forces of their government with the help of the Israeli Air Force, according to the Ministry of Interior of Syria. However, Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri has accused Syria of violating the ceasefire in a statement. Al Jazeera news agency reported that Israel attacked after he called on local fighters to confront government forces. 

Sweida is a Syrian province bordering the Israeli border. Armed groups from the Druze and Bedouin communities have been in conflict for a long time, resulting in occasional violence. The number of the Druze community in Syria is around 700,000. The Druze religious sect is considered a branch of Shia Islam. The latest clashes between government forces and militant groups from the community last April and May, in which dozens of people were killed. 

Israel has been responding to the fact that the Syrian government is attacking the minority Druze community and cannot tolerate it silently. Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, said, "We are witnessing the massacre and humiliation of the Druze and now we must fight against the terrorist regime in Syria."

The civil war in Syria began in 2011 after then-President Bashar al-Assad brutally suppressed anti-government protests. On 8 December 2024, Assad was ousted by a coup by Islamic forces. Bashar al-Assad became president in 2000 after the death of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years. About 500,000 people have lost their lives in the civil war since the Arab Spring in 2011. At least 30,000 of them were children. About 150 million people were displaced in one way or another. Millions of people have returned home after Assad was overthrown and fled to Moscow. 

Currently, the interim president of Syria is Ahmed al-Sara. But due to the activities of various armed groups within the country, peace has not been fully established. Only last February, the Syrian interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces reached an agreement to merge all civil and military organizations in the Kurdish-controlled area under state institutions.  The