The Druze, an ethnoreligious minority in the Levant region, began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. The religion is roughly 1 million strong, and more than half of that population is estimated to live in Syria, typically in the south, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel also said it was carrying out many more attacks in Sweida city, hitting Syrian soldiers and military buildings there.

Syrian state-run media say Israel carried out an air strike near Syria's southern Druze-majority city of Suweida late on Thursday. The Sana news agency is reporting that "Israeli occupation aircraft carried out a raid on the outskirts" of the city, without giving any further details. Israel's military has not commented on the issue.