Syria's new government sent troops to quell fighting between the Druze religious minority and Sunni Muslim tribes. Then Israel intervened, bombing Damascus.

Syria's Sweida province has been engulfed by nearly a week of violence triggered by clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions. Earlier on Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days.

Republican congressman and Israel caucus co-chair Joe Wilson rebukes Israeli military strikes on Syria, calling them insulting to Trump's recent diplomatic efforts in the region.

Syria and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said on Friday. The deal was “embraced” by Turkey, Jordan and other neighboring countries, the ambassador, who also serves as the US special envoy to Syria, said in a post on X.

Khalidi and Maya Gebeily DAMASCUS/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state,

Barrack suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.

When the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2011, Syrian Druze were targeted at times by both the Assad regime, which pressured them to support it, and by Islamist rebel groups that regarded them as infidels. The Druze straddled a fine line throughout the war, seeking, not always successfully, to be left on their own.

Public broadcaster reports that Israel coordinated delivery to the Druze-majority province with the US; monitor says death toll in sectarian clashes has surpassed 1,100