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.

Syria's army began withdrawing from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday after Israeli strikes on Damascus and US calls for a pullback from the Druze-majority city, state media said. Washington, which seeks to mend ties with Syria,

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Israel bombed the Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the country's Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community's southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes.

And Israeli-backed American organization in Gaza says 20 Palestinians died in a stampede at a food distribution center.

Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city.

Israel increased its military presence along the Syrian border on Wednesday after violent clashes between Druze and Bedouin groups in southern Syria. The unrest, centered in the Sweida region, led the Syrian government to send in troops.

Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border amid ongoing clashes in Sweida in southern Syria on Wednesday afternoon.

(Reuters) -Israeli drones targeted Syria's city of Sweida, where clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters have resumed, Syrian state news agency said on Wednesday. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Dozens of wounded and dead arrived at a hospital in Al-Mazraa in Syria's southern Sweida province on Tuesday following clashes between local militias, clans and government forces.