The illegal crossings came around the announcement by US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack that Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan, and regional partners. A group of Israeli-Druze civilians had crossed the border from Israel into Syria between Friday night to Saturday morning,

The Druze, an ethnoreligious minority in the Levant region, began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. The religion is roughly 1 million strong, and more than half of that population is estimated to live in Syria, typically in the south, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

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At the center of a crisis in Syria are the Druze — a secretive religious minority that long carved out a precarious identity across Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Israeli military responds to protect Syrian Druze from Islamist militants as local Druze citizens cross the border to aid their brethren, prompting concerns from Israeli officials.

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Defense Minister Israel Katz said southern Syria would remain a demilitarized zone despite Israel allegedly allowing Syrian forces a limited presence in Sweida.

Thomas Barrack, United States Special Envoy for Syria, announced on Friday that Israel and Syria agreed to a ceasefire seeking to resolve tensions between the two countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized earlier this week rounds of heavy airstrikes against Syrian government targets and aimed to support Druze rebels,