The Israeli military has launched a rare airstrike in the heart of Damascus hitting a Syrian Defense Ministry building, as clashes in the southern Syrian city of Sweida continues to flare.

Israel said it "struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters" and warns of more "painful blows".

Israel bombed the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the Druze minority alone in its Sweida heartland, where a war monitor says sectarian clashes have killed nearly 250 people.

Israel carried out a series of powerful strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus Wednesday, escalating a campaign it says is in support of an Arab minority group involved in deadly clashes with Syrian government forces.

Tzfat Chief Rabbi notes the Druze community's longstanding contributions to the state in addition to the principle that all humans are created in the image of God in call to defend the Syrian Druze.

"Silence and standing idly by are no longer an option,” Druze leader Sheikh Mowafak Tarif wrote. Israel's Druze spiritual leadership called on its community to prepare to assist their Syrian counterparts “by all means necessary,

Israel launched powerful airstrikes in Damascus on Wednesday, blowing up part of the defence ministry and hitting near the presidential palace as it vowed to destroy