Syria's defense minister has announced a ceasefire just hours after government forces entered a key city in the volatile Sweida province.

Residents from the Syrian-Druze city of Sweida described friends and neighbors being shot at close range in their homes or on the streets. One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room.

Several days of bitter sectarian fighting in the south of Syria has brought the fledgling government in Damascus dangerously close to direct conflict with Israel, after Israeli warplanes launched strikes against government buildings in the Syrian capital,

In his speech, Sharaa accused Israel of trying to drag the country into chaos after it launched airstrikes in Syria, which officials said are meant to defend the Druze minority group. In turn, Israel accused the government of directing fighting against the Druze, a community the Jewish state has pledged to protect.

Clashes between Bedouin tribes, government forces and members of a minority sect in Syria have left dozens dead and once again raised fears of a breakdown in the country's fragile postwar order. Clashes have on several occasions broken out between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters since the fall of President Bashar Assad in early December in a lightning rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups,

Syrian troops have pulled out of the Druze heartland of Sweida on the orders of the Islamist-led government, following days of deadly clashes that killed nearly 600 people, according to a war monitor.

Sectarian violence erupted again in southern Syria as local Sunni Bedouin tribes fought armed factions for the Druze religious community. The Syrian government dispatched troops to restore order, and Israel launched airstrikes to protect the Druze.

Syria's defense minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in southern Sweida province on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes killed dozens there. Neighboring Israel again launched strikes on Syrian military forces,

Druze from Syria and Israel protest on the Israeli-Syrian border, in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, amid the ongoing clashes between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups in the southern Syrian city of Sweida.