One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room. Another in his bedroom. The body of a woman lay in the street. After days of bloodshed in Syria's Druze city of Sweida, survivors emerged on Thursday to collect and bury the scores of dead found across the city.

As tensions between Syria’s Druze and Bedouin fighters escalate, Israel conducted its first airstrike in the Syrian city of Sweida after the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from the province

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

Clashes that shook southern Syria this week have killed hundreds of people, including civilians, and drawn in an array of both local and international players, harking back to the dynamics of the country's nearly 14-year civil war.

After five days of hunkering down at his home in the southern city of Sweida, 33-year-old Hossam emerged on Thursday and drove around to survey the damage. Wherever he went, the smell of death lingered.

The Islamist-led government's troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict.

These events highlight the falsity of claims that the regime change that took place in December 2024 with the support of the US and its allies, including Turkey, would bring democracy and peace to Syria,

More than 500 people have been killed in the sectarian violence that has consumed the southern province of Sweida in Syria since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The recent violence was one of the deadliest bouts of unrest in Syria since the collapse of the Assad regime.