Israel has launched bombing raids against two of its neighbours, hitting government forces in southern Syria and what it said were Hezbollah targets in eastern Lebanon.
In Syria, the strikes hit forces loyal to the transitional government that had been sent south to the province of Sweida, which is near Israel. Syrian state media also reported Israeli strikes on Tuesday in the nearby province of Deraa.
Israel, which wants to weaken the new administration in Damascus to maintain its military dominance in the region, said it had struck several tanks in Sweida as a “warning”.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned in a statement what it called “treacherous Israeli aggression” and said “a number of our armed forces and security personnel” as well as “several innocent civilians” were killed.
In Lebanon, Israeli aircraft bombed the Bekaa Valley region and killed 12 people, Lebanese state media reported, including a strike on a camp for displaced people. Reuters cited an unnamed Lebanese security source saying that five of the dead were Hezbollah fighters.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said Tuesday’s strikes sent a “clear message” to Hezbollah, a faction Israel has fought against for decades, including by repeatedly invading Lebanon.
The strikes on Lebanon and Syria did not appear to be coordinated, but follow a pattern of regular Israeli assaults on armed forces across the region, including in Palestine, Iran and Yemen.
In Syria, the transitional government has said it had sent the forces south to end days of clashes between Druze and Bedouin groups, who remained armed following the end of the civil war.
The defence minister earlier on Tuesday announced a ceasefire in the Druze-majority southern city of Sweida.
After an “agreement with the city’s notables and dignitaries, we will respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups,” the defence minister, Murhaf Abu Qasra, said in a statement.
According to the interior ministry in Syria, which is struggling to achieve stability after a 13-year civil war, more than 30 people have been killed and nearly 100 others injured in the clashes. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor with sources inside the country, reported at least 99 dead, including two children, two women and 14 members of the security forces.
The clashes initially broke out between armed groups from the Druze and Sunni Muslim Bedouin clans, the observatory said, with some members of the government security forces “actively participating” in support of the Bedouins.
On Tuesday, the observatory reported government forces had carried out what it called an “execution” of 12 Druze civilians in Sweida. Unverified footage online showed the bloodied bodies of 10 people in civilian clothes.
Israel’s military has previously moved in troops and attacked key military sites across Syria by air. It said its strikes on southern Syria were to enforce the complete demilitarisation of the area, with which it shares a frontier. It also said they were intended to defend the Druze minority living there, although leaders from the sect rebuffed that claim.
Syria’s minority populations, which also include Christians, Alawites, Shia Muslims and Kurds, are wary of the new Sunni-led administration after a devastating civil war in which the former ruling Assad family exploited and ignited sectarian division to protect itself. Since the overthrow of the former president, Bashar al-Assad, continuing sectarian killings have marred the new government’s first months.
The Syrian interior ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba told the Associated Press that the clashes in Sweida “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.”
Roughly 1 million Druze people, who follow an offshoot of a branch of Shia Islam, live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
Druze religious authorities had called for a ceasefire in the area on Monday, saying they were not opposed to the Syrian central government.
But Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, later expressed his rejection of the entry of general security forces into the province, demanding “international protection”.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the observatory, said the conflict started with the kidnapping and robbery of a Druze vegetable seller by members of a Bedouin group who had set up a checkpoint, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.
The UN deputy special envoy for Syria, Najat Rochdi, said in a statement that the clashes underscored the “urgent need for genuine inclusion, trust-building, and meaningful dialogue to advance a credible and inclusive political transition in Syria”.
Israeli forces in December seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the occupied Golan Heights and have launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
While many Druze in Syria have said they do not want Israel to intervene on their behalf, factions from the Druze minority have also been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus after Assad fled the country in December during a rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups. On several occasions, Druze groups have clashed with security forces from the new government or allied factions.
In May, Israeli forces struck a site near the presidential palace in Damascus, in what was seen as a warning to Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa. The new president has repeatedly said he is not interested in a conflict with Israel while Syria struggles to rebuild.
The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
