Syria's defense minister has announced a ceasefire just hours after government forces entered a key city in the volatile Sweida province.

Nearly 600 people have died in southern Syria amid recent violence between Bedouin and Druze communities in Suweida province, according to SOHR.

Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland of Sweida on the orders of the Islamist-led government, following days of deadly clashes that killed nearly 600 people, according to a war monitor.

A surge in sectarian violence in southern Syria and Israeli airstrikes reaching central Damascus have pushed the war‑scarred country into a volatile juncture, a senior UN official said on Thursday, warning that renewed violence could shatter prospects for peace and fuel wider regional instability.

At least 594 people have been killed in southern Syria's Sweida province following days of intense fighting between Druze fighters, government forces and Bedouin groups, according to a war monitor.

"If Israel feels that a certain leader...is an evident threat to its national security, it will operate," a former Israeli envoy told Newsweek.

Syria’s defense minister has announced a ceasefire after government forces entered a key city in Sweida province on Tuesday

The conflict had drawn airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel in defense of the Druze before a truce halted most of the fighting.

Clashes between Bedouin tribes, government forces and members of a minority sect in Syria have left dozens dead and once again raised fears of a breakdown in the country's fragile postwar order. The country is deeply divided as it tries to emerge from decades of dictatorship and nearly 14 years of civil war.

At least 18 members of Syria's security forces have been killed in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, the Defence Ministry said, after they deployed to quell deadly sectarian clashes that had resumed on Monday,

Israel launched several deadly airstrikes that targeted Syrian government forces in Sweida. The attack came as sectarian violence flared between Druse fighters and Bedouin tribal groups.

A view of a destroyed building, after powerful airstrikes shook Damascus on Wednesday, targeting the defense ministry, as Israel vowed to destroy Syrian government forces attacking Druze communities in southern Syria and demanded their withdrawal,