Israeli leaders said they launched attacks on Syria this week to protect members of the Druze religious group in the country’s south, amid clashes in the area.

Syria’s military entered a stronghold for the Druze community in the country’s south on Tuesday, the government said, reigniting fears of attacks against minorities and triggering renewed Israeli strikes on the forces dispatched by Damascus.

Israel is aggressively expanding its fleet of customized F-35I “Adir” stealth fighters, with plans to field a force of 75 jets. -The move comes after the “Adir” proved its devastating effectiveness in the recent “Operation Rising Lion” strikes against Iran.

The plots have largely preyed on economically vulnerable Israelis with relatively weak social ties. In one high-profile case, police arrested two young men in Tiberias on June 15, according to the Times of Israel. The two were each promised $60,000 to assassinate a top Israeli scientist.

“The Israeli Druze are now trying to use that and urge the Israeli government to protect fellow Druze in Syria,” he said, explaining, in part, the justification for Israel’s strikes on Syria, where the Druze community has traditionally been anti-Israel, even as some leaders grow closer to Israel.

The head of an Israeli parliamentary committee told the Finance Ministry on Thursday to come up with a compensation plan by next week for Israelis stranded abroad during last month's war with Iran or the panel would impose one.

Turkish President Erdogan accuses Israel of using the Druze in Syria as an excuse for "banditry" and expansion, calling Israel a "lawless, greedy terrorist state".

The 12 countries unanimously agreed on measures designed to cut ties of complicity with Israel’s actions in Gaza. “The measures include prohibiting the supply or transfer of...

The strikes in Syria were a rare attack on forces of the new government, which is led by Islamist former rebels who toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria and deployed forces across a demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck "the entrance" of Syria's military headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, early settlers who decided to settle in the lands of Israel faced a huge challenge: how to farm in conditions of sweltering heat and minimal rainfall. The land was catastrophically barren,