Around 940 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in week-long violence in Syria's Druze-majority province of Sweida, a war monitor reported on Saturday, amid renewed sectarian fighting despite a ceasefire announcement.

Syria should not be allowed back into the international community unless it is able to uphold protections for the Druze and its other minority groups, Israel has said.

After days of bloodshed in Syria's Druze city of Sweida, survivors emerged to collect and bury the scores of dead found across the city.

Hundreds of Druze from Israel pushed across the border in solidarity with their Syrian cousins they feared were under attack. Many then met relatives they had never seen before.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Residents reported calm in the Syrian city of Sweida on Sunday after the Islamist-led government declared that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and the United States stepped up calls for an end to fighting.

The Druze religious sect, enmeshed in an outbreak of tit-for-tat violence in Syria, began roughly 1,000 years ago as an offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said southern Syria would remain a demilitarized zone despite Israel allegedly allowing Syrian forces a limited presence in Sweida. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz told US Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday that he “did not trust”Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa,