Israel has agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days, an Israeli official said on Friday after days of bloodshed in and around Syria's Druze city of Sweida "In light of the ongoing instability in southwest Syria,

Members of Syrian security forces walk on a road in Sweida countryside, as vehicles transporting other Syrian security forces make their way out of the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 16,

Syrian government forces largely pulled out of the southern province of Sweida on Thursday after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze minority that threatened to unravel the country's post-war transition and brought in more Israeli airstrikes in defense of the Druze.

ROME (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Pope Leo on Friday, the Vatican said, a day after an Israeli strike on Gaza's sole Catholic church killed three people and injured several more.

Top church leaders in the Holy Land headed into Gaza Friday for a rare solidarity visit one day after an Israeli shell slammed into the only Catholic church in the territory, killing three people

The strike killed three people and injured several others, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees the small parish, said Thursday.

Syria has been wracked by a new wave of deadly sectarian violence that has placed the spotlight on the Druze minority at the center of rising tensions with Israel. Dozens of people were killed this week after clashes between government loyalists and Druze militias in the southern city of Suwayda,

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