Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southern Syria, saying it was acting to protect the Druze minority.

Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Israel has struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clash with Druze militias.

The latest intercommunal violence, which has left some 600 people dead in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, illustrates a fundamental disagreement between the United States and Israel over the nature of the Syrian state.