Israel Attacked Near Syria’s Military Headquarters. Here’s What to Know.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had attacked the entrance to the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus, adding that it was closely monitoring operations by government forces in a region of southern Syria dominated by the Druse minority where clashes have raged for days.

A cease-fire was announced on Tuesday in southern Sweida province. But more violence broke out on Wednesday, according to Syrian authorities and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group. The death toll in four days of violence there rose to more than 200, according to the Observatory.

The clashes erupted on Sunday between armed Bedouin tribes and Druse militias that control Sweida province. They escalated into one of the deadliest bouts of unrest in the region in years, drawing in both security forces of the new Syrian government and neighboring Israel. Israel offered few immediate details on Wednesday on its attack near the military headquarters.

The fighting was the latest evidence that Syria’s new leaders are still struggling to assert their authority over the entire country after overthrowing the longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. Here’s what you need to know:

Why did the fighting erupt?

The fighting started on Sunday after members of an armed Bedouin tribe attacked and robbed a Druse man along Sweida’s main highway, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain.

That incident prompted an exchange of attacks and kidnappings between the Druse militias that control Sweida province and armed Bedouin groups there, some of which are seen as pro-government.

As the unrest escalated, the Syrian government deployed military forces on Monday to quell the conflict, Syrian officials said. But given the deep-seated mistrust of the new government, many in the Druse militia groups thought that the government forces were coming to aid the Bedouins and to attack the Druse, according to Druse militia leaders.

In response, Druse militias mobilized to repel the government forces and clashed with them, Druse militia leaders said.

New violence broke out on Wednesday in the city of Sweida, the provincial capital, according to Syrian authorities and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria’s state news agency, citing the country’s defense ministry, said that so-called “outlaw groups” had attacked security forces inside the city on Wednesday, prompting them to return fire. Israeli airstrikes were also reported by Syria’s state news agency, although there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

More than 200 have been killed since Sunday, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also said Internet and electricity networks were down in the city of Sweida.

Who are the Druse militias?

The Druse, a religious minority, make up about 3 percent of Syria’s population. During the country’s civil war, which lasted nearly 14 years, the Druse formed several militias to defend themselves against the Assad government, as well as against Islamist extremist militants who consider them heretics.

For years, those militias have effectively controlled Sweida, the Druse heartland in Syria and a strategically important province on the border with Jordan and near Israel.

After a Sunni Islamist rebel coalition toppled the Assad family’s rule of Syria, which had spanned five decades, the country’s new leadership began negotiating with Druse leaders, seeking to absorb their militias into the new government’s national army.

Government officials see the integration of Druse forces into the military as critical for securing their government’s authority over the entire country, including the south.

But Druse militia leaders have remained skeptical of Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, and his pledge to protect the rights of the country’s diverse religious and ethnic minorities.

Mr. al-Shara and many in his cohort were part of an Islamist rebel group, dominated by members of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority and once linked to Al Qaeda.

Why is Israel involved?

Second, they want to assuage the concerns of Israel’s own Druse minority, which has a close relationship with the Israeli government. Israeli officials have also intervened militarily to protect the Druse in Syria.

Israel carried out waves of airstrikes on Monday and Tuesday against Syrian government troops in Sweida.

In recent months, Israeli forces have seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and carried out incursions south of the capital, Damascus, to arrest anti-Israel militants. Israel has also launched hundreds of airstrikes on military targets across the country, saying it did not want Assad-era weaponry falling into the hands of anyone who might use it against Israelis.

By taking actions to protect them, Israel hopes to strengthen a potential ally against hostile groups near the Israeli border, particularly the part of the Golan Heights inside Syria, according to experts on Israeli-Syrian relations.

“The Israeli government will tell you: We cannot take chances, we don’t want hostile forces settling in the Syrian Golan, we don’t want Iran and Hezbollah playing games there — that’s the logic,” said Itamar Rabinovich, an Israeli historian who led negotiations with Syria during the 1990s.

What does this mean for Syria’s new government?

The clashes, the third major surge of violence against Syrian religious minorities since the regime of President Bashar al-Assad collapsed in December, renewed fears the country might spiral into a sectarian conflict.

In early March, armed groups who had served in Mr. al-Assad’s security forces ambushed the new government’s forces on the Syrian coast, setting of days of sectarian violence that killed more than 1,500 people, mostly from the minority Alawite sect, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In May, more than 39 people, mostly from the Druse minority, were killed over two days in a wave of violence near Damascus.

Syrian officials have said that the latest round of fighting in Sweida underscores the need for the central government to control the province.

The Interior Ministry described the violence as a dangerous escalation that “comes in the absence of the relevant official institutions, which has led to an exacerbation of the state of chaos, the deterioration of the security situation and the inability of the local community to contain the situation.”

Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting.