The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Damascus headquarters served as a command center for deploying regime forces to Suwayda, a southern Syrian region gripped by days of deadly clashes between government troops, Druze militias, and Bedouin groups.

Israel carried out heavy airstrikes in the heart of Damascus on Wednesday, hitting Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters and an area near the presidential palace.

Syria TV has released footage of the moment its Damascus studio captured an Israeli strike on the Syrian Defense Ministry.

Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus, including the Ministry of Defence, during live TV broadcasts, sparking widespread attention. The strikes, confirmed by Israel, targeted military sites after clashes in Sweida involving the Druze minority.

Western diplomats were passing near Syria's defence ministry in Damascus in an armoured convoy when Israel struck the building with several missiles on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter,

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Israeli army said Wednesday that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus. The strike came as clashes continued in the southern Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed.

The fighting puts the U.S. in an awkward position, with President Donald Trump pursuing a path of normalization with the embattled Syria.

Syria's Druze have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Sweida that will take immediate effect, Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said in a video broadcast by state media on Wednesday.