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.

Syrian state-run media say Israel carried out an air strike near Syria's southern Druze-majority city of Suweida late on Thursday. The Sana news agency is reporting that "Israeli occupation aircraft carried out a raid on the outskirts" of the city, without giving any further details. Israel's military has not commented on the issue.

"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,