The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Damascus headquarters served as a command center for deploying regime forces to Suwayda, a southern Syrian region gripped by days of deadly clashes between government troops, Druze militias, and Bedouin groups.

Israel says it's trying to protect the Druze community in south-west Syria, where there have been deadly sectarian clashes.

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.

Israel carried out a series of powerful strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus Wednesday, escalating a campaign it says is in support of an Arab minority group involved in deadly clashes with Syrian government forces.

Israel said it "struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters" and warns of more "painful blows".

"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,

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 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,

Steps taken by Syrian government to establish security across country, strengthen its presence should be supported,' says Turkish Foreign Ministry