The Syrian government earlier announced a new ceasefire in Sweida that would bring a halt to military operations there, after clashes that a war monitor said had left more than 350 people dead since Sunday.

DAMASCUS — Clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, wrecking a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed.

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.

And Israeli-backed American organization in Gaza says 20 Palestinians died in a stampede at a food distribution center.

Convoys of Syrian security forces and tank transporters carrying tanks were seen moving outside of Sweida on July 16. Scores of people have been killed this week in violence in and around the predominantly Druze city of Sweida.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Israel bombed the Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the country's Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community's southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes.

Israel increased its military presence along the Syrian border on Wednesday after violent clashes between Druze and Bedouin groups in southern Syria. The unrest, centered in the Sweida region, led the Syrian government to send in troops.

In Syria's Druze-majority city of Sweida, residents said they have been living in terror since the arrival of government forces who have been carrying out what witnesses and a war monitor have called summary executions.