DAMASCUS -- The death toll from this week's deadly clashes in southern Syria's Sweida province has risen to nearly 600, as tensions continued Thursday amid an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Sweida, state-run media and a war monitor reported.

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

Israeli strikes targeted areas near Sweida, a Druze-majority city, following the withdrawal of Syrian government forces after clashes with local fighters. These strikes occurred amidst escalating violence,

Residents emerged from their homes to scenes of devastation on Thursday after government forces withdrew from the Syrian Druze-majority city of Sweida, leaving behind looted shops, burned homes and bodies littering the streets after days of violence.

Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida Thursday on orders from the Islamist-led government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, AFP journalists reported from the provincia

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.

BEIRUT (Reuters) -One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room. Another in his bedroom. The body of a woman lay in the street. After days of bloodshed in Syria's Druze city of Sweida,

Israel says it's trying to protect the Druze community in south-west Syria, where there have been deadly sectarian clashes.