Israeli leaders said they launched attacks on Syria this week to protect members of the Druze religious group in the country’s south, amid clashes in the area.

Violence in Syria's Druze province has triggered Israeli military action, complicating relations with Turkey and creating a power vacuum that Iran could exploit.

Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southern Syria, saying it was acting to protect the Druze minority.

Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the country’s Druse minority.

Israel has struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clash with Druze militias.

Hundreds of Druze from Israel pushed across the border in solidarity with their Syrian cousins they feared were under attack. Many then met relatives they had never seen before.

The latest intercommunal violence, which has left some 600 people dead in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, illustrates a fundamental disagreement between the United States and Israel over the nature of the Syrian state.