Hezbollah chief says group won't relinquish arms to Israel • Damascus thought it had 'green light' from US, Israel to send forces south • Israeli-Druze group crosses border into Syria

The conflict drew airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel in defense of the Druze minority before most of the fighting was halted by a truce announced Wednesday.

Syrian government forces have started withdrawing from the southern province of Sweida following days of vicious clashes with militias from the Druze minority.

The Syrian Islamist-led government announced a ceasefire in Sweida following deadly factional violence. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa praised international mediation while criticizing Israeli airstrikes.

Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze religious minority that threatened to unravel the country’s fragile post-war transition.

Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa urged Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes Saturday to “fully commit” to a ceasefire aimed at ending clashes with militias linked to the Druze minority that left hundreds dead and threatened to unravel the country’s post-war transition.

In the last barely-functional hospital in Sweida, bodies are overflowing from the morgue, staff said, amid violence that has wracked the Druze-majority southern Syrian city for nearly a week."There's no more space in the morgue,

Syrian security forces are preparing to redeploy to the Druze-majority Sweida city to quell fighting with Bedouin tribes, a Syrian interior ministry spokesperson said on Friday, further straining a fragile truce in Syria's south.