What we are witnessing may be the first chapter of a Pax Israeliana - a regional order not imposed by conquest, but secured by principled strength.

Israel has been carrying out strikes on Syria since the fall of the Assad regime last December. This week saw a major escalation, when Israel said it attacked Syria to protect the Druze, an Arab minority at the center of clashes with government loyalists.

Clashes that shook southern Syria this week killed hundreds of people, including civilians, and drew in an array of local and international players, harking back to the dynamics of the country's yearslong civil war.

“The Israeli Druze are now trying to use that and urge the Israeli government to protect fellow Druze in Syria,” he said, explaining, in part, the justification for Israel’s strikes on Syria, where the Druze community has traditionally been anti-Israel, even as some leaders grow closer to Israel.

Israeli leaders said they launched attacks on Syria this week to protect members of the Druze religious group in the country’s south, amid clashes in the area.

Under Israeli bombardment and diplomatic pressure, Ahmed al-Sharaa pulled troops from Syria's Druze heartland -- a move that exposes the interim leader's weakness just as he sought to assert control.

A fresh wave of deadly sectarian violence has rocked Syria, highlighting the country's fragile security landscape.

Israel also said it was carrying out many more attacks in Sweida city, hitting Syrian soldiers and military buildings there.

In Syria, Druze fighters have clashed both with neighbouring Bedouin tribes and with forces loyal to the Islamist government, as they have struggled to find their place in the new order ushered in by the December overthrow of longtime president Bashar al-Assad.

Hundreds of Druze from Israel pushed across the border in solidarity with their Syrian cousins they feared were under attack. Many then met relatives never seen before.