[Source: Reuters]

Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the U.S. envoy to Turkey said on Friday, after days of bloodshed in the predominantly Druze area that has killed over 300 people.

On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus and hit government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying that Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has members in Lebanon and Israel.

“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said in a post on X.

Barrack said that Israel and Syria agreed to the ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and neighbors.

The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian consulate in Canada did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Syria’s Sweida province has been engulfed by nearly a week of violence triggered by clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions.

Earlier on Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days.

The Syrian presidency said late on Friday that authorities would deploy a force in the south dedicated to ending the clashes, in coordination with political and security measures to restore stability and prevent the return of violence.

Damascus earlier this week dispatched government troops to quell the fighting, but they were accused of carrying out widespread violations against the Druze and were hit by Israeli strikes before withdrawing under a truce agreed on Wednesday.

Israel had repeatedly said it would not allow Syrian troops to deploy to the country’s south, but on Friday it said it would grant them a brief window to end renewed clashes there.

“In light of the ongoing instability in southwest Syria, Israel has agreed to allow limited entry of the (Syrian) internal security forces into Sweida district for the next 48 hours,” the official, who declined to be named, told reporters.

Describing Syria’s new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has vowed to shield the area’s Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel’s own Druze minority.

It carried out more strikes on Sweida in the early hours of Friday.

The U.S. intervened to help secure the earlier truce between government forces and Druze fighters, and the White House said on Thursday that it appeared to be holding.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the U.S., accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority.

Reuters reporters saw a convoy of units from Syria’s interior ministry stopped on a road in Daraa province, which lies directly east of Sweida. A security source told Reuters that forces were awaiting a final green light to enter Sweida.

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