Israel bombed Syrian government forces rolling into a Druze-majority city in southern Syria following days of ethnic fighting there, in a rare direct attack on forces loyal to the new leadership in Damascus that Jerusalem had seen as a potential ally.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that they instructed the Israel Defense Forces to bomb Syrian forces and weapons nearing Sweida “following the attack on the Druze,” a day after Israel hit a number of Syrian tanks in what it said was a warning that it would act to protect the minority group.

The attacks came as Syrian forces entered the city of Sweida to subdue deadly intercommunal clashes between the local majority Druze population and Bedouin clans that have reportedly left nearly 100 dead.

Fighting briefly erupted between government forces and armed Druze factions that control the city and are deeply distrustful of the country’s new Islamist leadership, but Syria’s defense minister announced a ceasefire a short time later.

“To all units operating within the city of Sweida, we declare a complete ceasefire after an agreement with the city’s notables and dignitaries,” Murhaf Abu Qasra posted on X.

Most Druze religious leaders had urged Sweida’s fighters to lay down their arms and allow government forces into the city.

Israel, which has its own Druze population, has attempted to portray itself as a protector of the Druze in Syria, seeing them as potential allies.

“Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherly alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, and their familial and historical ties to the Druze in Syria, and we are acting to prevent the Syrian regime from harming them, and to ensure the demilitarization of the area adjacent to our border with Syria,” the statement from Netanyahu and Katz read.

They said the entry of soldiers and arms into the area contravened “the demilitarization policy that was decided, prohibiting the entry of forces and weapons into southern Syria that endanger Israel.”

The IDF said it struck “several armored vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, multiple rocket launchers, as well as access routes, to disrupt their arrival in the area,” after identifying an armored column moving toward Sweida on Monday night.

The attacks were carried out “per the directives of the political echelon,” the army added.

An Israeli defense official said the strikes Tuesday were “exceptionally large-scale.”

“The State of Israel sees this as a test of its policy to demilitarize southern Syria and its commitment to the Druze,” the official added.

On Monday, Israel bombarded several Syrian tanks in the area in what it said was a warning to the regime.

The bombings could complicate diplomatic efforts underway aimed at resolving tensions between Syria and Israel, which moved troops into a belt of Syrian land adjoining the frontier following the Islamist takeover of the country last year.

Recent weeks have seen rampant speculation that the talks could evolve into a peace deal between the neighbors as part of the US-sponsored Abraham Accords.

The fighting that erupted in Sweida Sunday has underscored the challenges facing interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar al-Assad in December after nearly 14 years of civil war.

Though he has been welcomed by the West, there are fears that religious minorities, including the Druze, could be persecuted under his rule.

The violence began on Sunday when Bedouin gunmen abducted a Druze vegetable vendor on the highway to Damascus, prompting retaliatory kidnappings and clashes that spread across the Sweida governorate..

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported 99 people killed since the fighting erupted — 60 Druze, including four civilians, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel, and seven unidentified people in military uniforms.

The monitor’s numbers could not be verified. It has regularly been accused by Syrian military analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.

The Syrian defense ministry reported 18 deaths among the ranks of the armed forces.

According to the monitor, members of Bedouin tribes, who are Sunni Muslims, had sided with government forces during earlier confrontations with the Druze.

Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Sweida, and violence occasionally erupts between the two sides.

However, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine Al-Baba told The Associated Press that the “clashes are fundamentally not sectarian in nature.”

“The real conflict is between the state and bandits and criminals, not between the state and any Syrian community,” he said. “On the contrary, the state views the Druze community in Sweida as a partner in advancing the national unity project.”

While Druze religious authorities had called on Monday evening for a ceasefire and said they didn’t oppose the central government, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, opposed the arrival of the security forces and called for “international protection.”

In Israel, the Association of Druze Discharged Soldiers and Reservists penned a letter to Netanyahu Tuesday, urging him to provide military and humanitarian assistance in defense of their Syrian compatriots, who are suffering “brutal attacks by extremist terror organizations.”

“There is an unending series of massacres, kidnappings, looting, and harm to innocent civilians — women, children, and the elderly alike,” the group said.

The Druze, followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam, are mainly found in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

Syria’s pre-war Druze population was estimated at around 700,000, many of them concentrated in Sweida province.

Following deadly clashes with government forces in April and May, local and religious leaders reached an agreement with Damascus under which Druze fighters had been providing security in the province.

Amal, a 46-year-old woman, said Druze “fear a repeat of the coastal scenario,” referring to massacres in March of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in northwest Syria, where groups affiliated with the government were blamed for most of the killings.

“We are not against the state, but we are against surrendering our weapons without a state that treats everyone the same,” she added.