A complicated mess has erupted in Syria after government troops who entered Sweida were bombed and forced to withdraw when Israel mounted multiple air strikes against them, killing hundreds of soldiers and civilians.

The attack follows a wave of Israeli strikes on Syrian government forces during two days of sectarian clashes between local Druze and Bedouin populations.

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.

Israel continues to bomb Syria, ostensibly to support Druze forces in the southwest, even after ceasefire is declared.

As alarming sectarian violence swept through Syria in the third week of July, Christian communities in the region experienced a new wave of persecution. Attacks on the country's Christian, Druze and Alawite communities were perpetrated mainly by Islamist jihadists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.

At least 30 people were killed and around 100 were injured in sectarian violence that exploded in Syria's southernmost As-Suwayda Governorate, the Middle Eastern country's Ministry of Interior said Monday morning.

Israel says it is intervening to protect Syria’s Druze residents who have strong ties to Israel’s Druze community. Damascus called the attack a violation of sovereignty.

Israel launched airstrikes against targets in Syria in Wednesday, following days of sectarian violence in the southern region of Sweida that has killed more than 500.