Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Syrian government troops will be blocked from the area south of the capital Damascus to protect the Druze minority following Israel's attacks in the country earlier this week.

Instead of showing leadership, Netanyahu spent Monday night pacing the Knesset, pleading with United Torah Judaism’s Moshe Gafni to retract his resignation.

Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border amid ongoing clashes in Sweida in southern Syria on Wednesday afternoon.

"If Israel feels that a certain leader...is an evident threat to its national security, it will operate," a former Israeli envoy told Newsweek.

Under Israeli bombardment and diplomatic pressure, Ahmed al-Sharaa pulled troops from Syria's Druze heartland -- a move that exposes the interim leader's weakness just as he sought to assert control.Since seizing office in December after ousting longtime autocrat Bashar al-Assad,

Israel announced that a ceasefire had been reached in the area, and that the Syrian forces were expected to withdraw from areas with Druze populations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to allow Syrian government troops south of the capital Damascus. "We have set forth a clear policy: demilitarization of the region to south of Damascus,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the success of his “peace through strength” stance against Damascus as a U.S.-led peace plan quells violence in southwest Syria. Netanyahu made no apologies for his military’s actions against the Syrian government,

Only last week, optimism was swirling over the prospects of a truce agreement between Israel and Syria.US President Donald Trump had formally dismantled American sanctions against Syria at the end of June,