Sectarian clashes between Druze and Bedouin militias have killed at least 30 people
The strikes were launched after the Syrian Government sent troops to Sweida today NZT to restore order as sectarian clashes entered a second day.
The Israeli military said it struck the Syrian tanks because their presence in southern Syria 'may pose a threat to the State of Israel'. The tanks were advancing towards Sweida, the statement said and were targeted to stop their arrival in the area.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the strikes were a 'message and a clear warning to the Syrian regime - we will not allow harm to be done to the Druze community in Syria'.
The clashes in the Druze-majority city of Sweida initially broke out yesterday in the Maqous neighbourhood of the city, Syria's Interior Ministry said.
It marked the first time that months of simmering tensions in the wider province had reached the city itself.
More than 30 people were killed and nearly 100 were injured, according to a preliminary count from the ministry. The clashes expanded as local armed groups began fighting the government forces.
Khalid Nemer, a Druze activist in Sweida, said at least 150 Druze have been killed in the clashes. The Washington Post could not independently verify the toll.
'The situation is very bad. Since the morning, there have been attempts to storm several axes by government forces as well as shelling operations and armed clashes,' said Rayan Maarouf, a researcher from Sweida who runs the local news site Sweida 24.
Some Druze have described the government intervention as an attack on the Druze people, rather than an effort to restore order.
'They entered the administrative borders last night under the pretext of protection, but they proceeded to bombard our people in the border villages and supported the takfiri gangs with their heavy weapons and drones,' influential Druze spiritual leader Hikmat Hijiri said in a statement, using a term for radical Islamist groups.
While Hijiri has vehemently opposed the new Islamist authorities, Druze spiritual leaders in Syria called for calm today and urged Damascus to intervene.
'Blood is everywhere from both sides,' said a 34-year-old Druze resident of Sweida, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
People were sequestered in their homes 'in a state of panic' because of the fighting, she said, adding that she fled the city and headed to Iraq today.
The violence began when a Druze businessman was ambushed, robbed and humiliated with sectarian slurs by an armed group, according to Malik Abu al-Khair, the leader of the Druze al-Liwa party in Syria.
Local reports said the incident at the weekend sparked a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings between the Druze and members of a Bedouin tribe before the clashes broke out.
Syrian Government troops went to Sweida to 'begin a direct intervention,' the Interior Ministry said.
Efforts to integrate the armed factions of Syrian minorities - including the Druze and the Kurds - into the new Syrian military have continually hit stumbling blocks since the overthrow of the regime of Bashar al-Assad last year.
Anas Khattab, Syria's Interior Minister, said in a statement that the 'absence of state institutions, especially military and security institutions, is a major cause of the ongoing tensions in Sweida and its countryside'.
'The only solution is to reactivate these institutions to ensure civil peace,' he said.
The ongoing violence follows deadly incidents in April and May in which dozens were killed on the outskirts of Damascus and Sweida in clashes between Druze gunmen and Islamist militants backing the new Syrian Government.
The fighting prompted Israeli intervention with several strikes in support of the Druze, including one near the presidential palace in Damascus.
Some Syrian Druze distanced themselves from the Israeli action, while others, such as Hijiri, welcomed it, telling the Washington Post in May that Israel was 'not the enemy'.
The violence subsided after a deal was reached to put Druze fighters in charge of security in Sweida.
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