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.

"The minute we see terrorists going into hospitals and murdering children and patients, we cannot stand idle," Fares Alawi told the Israeli news site. Israel-Druze political activist Fares Alawi crossed the border into Syria on Wednesday,