The Israeli military has launched a rare airstrike in the heart of Damascus hitting a Syrian Defense Ministry building, as clashes in the southern Syrian city of Sweida continues to flare.

Syria has been wracked by a new wave of deadly sectarian violence that has placed the spotlight on the Druze minority at the center of rising tensions with Israel. Dozens of people were killed this week after clashes between government loyalists and Druze militias in the southern city of Suwayda,

Israel says its military has attacked the headquarters of the Syrian military in Damascus Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says "warnings" have now ended and "painful blows" will come Israel says it is trying to protect members of the Druze community in south-west Syria "We are working to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime's gangs,

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.

"Silence and standing idly by are no longer an option,” Druze leader Sheikh Mowafak Tarif wrote. Israel's Druze spiritual leadership called on its community to prepare to assist their Syrian counterparts “by all means necessary,

Israel has threatened to increase its involvement in Syria and vowed to protect the Druze religious minority, which began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam, the Associated Press reported. Most of the world’s Druze population lives in Syria, with the rest predominantly in Israel and Lebanon.

Israel bombed the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus as part of a wave of airstrikes aimed at forcing government forces to withdraw from towns near the border. One missile strike on the military headquarters in the capital was captured live on news broadcasts, as warplanes also dropped bombs near the presidential palace.

Israel said it bombed 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 monitor says

Israel has bombed the areas around the Syrian city of Suweida after renewed fighting between Syrian government forces and Druze militias. This came after clashes broke out between the Druze and Bedouin tribes over the weekend in which 30 were left dead and dozens wounded.

The Druze, a minority group in Syria, are at the heart of escalating tensions with Israel, prompting Israeli airstrikes to safeguard them.