Members of the small religious sect find themselves caught between two forces that many of them distrust: the new, Islamist-led government in Damascus and Syria’s hostile neighbor, Israel, which has used the plight of the Druze as a pretext to intervene in the country.

Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, the new chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), visited Israel’s border with Syria on March 9. He traveled to IDF positions and met with commanders.

The latest attacks came a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel demanded the demilitarization of much of southern Syria, stoking fears of conflict with the country’s new leadership.

"A confrontation, possibly even a small-scale military one, may occur between Israel and Turkey," one expert told Newsweek.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday accused Syria’s new rulers of “massacring” their own people and urged European nations to stop legitimizing the interim government in Damascus.

The Israeli military is targeting more areas of southern Syria, and Israel is lobbying world powers to keep the central government in Damascus weak.

The attacks in southern Syria are part of a new policy aimed at protecting what Israel calls its “security zone” in the region. Syria’s new government has condemned that policy.

Israel’s defense ministry says the military has been instructed to prepare to defend a Druze settlement in the suburbs of Damascus in neighboring Syria.

Syria’s top diplomat and his counterparts from neighboring countries have called for the lifting of Western-led sanctions and post-war reconciliation

A prominent Druze leader in Lebanon has said that he will soon visit Syria to meet its interim leader as tensions simmer between members of the minority group, the war-torn country’s interim government,

President Donald Trump on Monday alerted America's farmers to coming U.S. tariffs on "external product," telling them to get ready to sell their goods domestically.