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.

Israel carried out heavy airstrikes in the heart of Damascus om Wednesday, hitting Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters and an area near the presidential palace.

Syria's Druze have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Sweida that will take immediate effect, Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said in a video broadcast by state media on Wednesday.

Israel bombed the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the Druze minority alone in its Sweida heartland, where a war monitor says sectarian clashes have killed nearly 250 people.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced Wednesday a renewed ceasefire after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and have drawn intervention by Syria’s powerful neighbor, Israel.

The Syrian government deployed its forces in the Druze-majority city of Sweida, in a bid by the Islamist authorities to extend their power to the area controlled by local armed groups.

Syria said a new ceasefire was reached Wednesday in Sweida, a day after an earlier truce collapsed amid days of violence that have killed more than 300, according to a

Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community.