Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday accused Israel of pursuing “chaos and destruction” after launching airstrikes on his government’s forces with the stated goal of protecting its neighbor’s Druze community.

In his first televised statement after the powerful Israeli airstrikes on Damascus on Wednesday, Sharaa addressed Druze citizens, saying, “We reject any attempt to drag you into the hands of an external party.”

“We are not among those who fear the war. We have spent our lives facing challenges and defending our people, but we have put the interests of the Syrians before chaos and destruction,” he said in remarks addressed at Israel.

Witnesses in Sweida, a Druze-majority city in southern Syria, had said government forces dispatched there with the stated objective of ending days-long clashes between Druze and Bedouin fighters had actually joined with the latter to attack Druze fighters and civilians.

The Syrian regime announced Wednesday night it had begun withdrawing its army from Sweida after agreeing to a new ceasefire that it said would bring a complete halt to its military operations there, even as some Druze leaders rejected the arrangement, and Israel — which blew up part of Syria’s Defense Ministry and hit near the presidential palace earlier in the day — vowed to protect the community.

Sharaa said in his televised address that the Syrian people were ready to fight if their dignity is threatened.

He also alleged that “the Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities.”

This led to a “significant complication of the situation and pushed matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate,” he added.

Sharaa vowed that those behind violence against the Druze minority, which led Israel to intervene, would be held responsible.

“We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people, as they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,” Sharaa said.

The Syrian leader told the Druze community it was “a fundamental part of the fabric of this nation… protecting your rights and freedom is one of our priorities.”

The attacks marked a significant Israeli escalation against Sharaa’s Islamist-led administration. They came despite his warming ties with the US and his administration’s evolving security contacts with Israel.

Describing Syria’s new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has said it will not let them move forces into southern Syria and vowed to shield the area’s Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel’s own Druze minority. Around 1,000 Druze youth broke through the border from Israel into Syria on Wednesday, aiming to reach Sweida and assist their community in the fight.

The US vowed Wednesday night that the fighting would stop soon.

“We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Thursday to address the conflict, diplomats said.

“The council must condemn the barbaric crimes committed against innocent civilians on Syrian soil,” said Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon. “Israel will continue to act resolutely against any terrorist threat on its borders, anywhere and at any time.”

More than 350 people have been killed in the violence, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said early Thursday, raising a previous toll.

It said that since clashes erupted on Sunday, 79 Druze fighters were killed along with 55 civilians, 27 of them in “summary executions by members of the defense and interior ministries,” while 189 defense and interior ministry personnel and 18 Bedouin fighters were also killed. Earlier, the monitor had said the death toll was 300.

The Observatory said the victims in Sweida include a media worker, identifying him as Hassan al-Zaabi. The Syrian journalists’ union in a statement said Zaabi was shot dead by “outlaw gangs” in Sweida province “while performing his professional duties,” without saying whom he worked for.

Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses.

Syria’s Islamist authorities, who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, have had strained relations with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, and have been accused of not doing enough to protect them.

March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their coastal heartland, with government-affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings.

Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.