Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

Coming to you live from London, I'm Regina Vaidyanarthan.

Fighting in the southern Syrian city of Suwaita, after the collapse of a ceasefire which pledged to end the violence

between tribal fighters loyal to the Syrian government and militia belonging to the Druze minority group.

Well, nearly 250 people are reported to have been killed in the sectarian violence in Suada in recent days.

The Syrian presidencies vowed to punish those responsible.

As the fighting continues, Israel launched further attacks on Syrian forces, including strikes

on the capital, Damascus.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netany, said his military was trying to protect

the Druze in Syria. My brothers, the Druze citizens of Israel, the situation in Sweda in

southwestern Syria is very serious. The IDF is operating. The Air Force is operating. Other forces are operating. We are acting to save our Drews brothers and to eliminate the regime's gangs.

Well, Lena Sinjab, our correspondent, has been following the story from Beirut and she joins us live.

Good to talk to you, Lena. First of all, what's the latest from Syria in terms of

reports of explosions? Well, it seems that there was another strike on the headquarters of the

defence forces in the capital, Damascus. The first early in the day, we've seen images of it that, you know,

hit the entrance of the headquarter, but there was a second one.

It seems that hit the top of the headquarter, you know, the plumber of smoke is seen

and some videos show these kind of explosions. Of course, this is

really setting everyone on alert inside Syria. There hasn't been any official and direct comment yet

from the Syrian government on the Israeli airstrikes. Of course, we've heard the message from the Israeli government.

This is to deter, you know, Syrian official forces from entering Sweda, and they said that this

is to protect the Druze minority, but this is like the biggest escalation the Israelis have

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