Israel intervened Wednesday in the sectarian violence that killed about 30 people over two days in Syria, claiming to have launched a "warning" strike to urge authorities to protect the Druze community.

This violence has resurrected the specter of massacres that claimed more than 1,700 lives, mostly among the Alawite minority from which the deposed president Bashar al-Assad, ousted in December by the now-ruling Islamist coalition, originated.

Clashes between armed groups linked to the Sunni power and Druze fighters around Damascus spread Wednesday to the locality of Sahnaya, killing 13 and showing the challenges facing the new authorities in this unstable country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz jointly announced that the army had conducted a "warning action" against an "extremist group preparing to attack the Druze population of the town of Sahnaya."

"At the same time, a firm message was sent to the Syrian regime: Israel expects it to act to protect the Druze community," the text added.

Thirteen people were killed in Sahnaya, 15 kilometers southwest of Damascus, where clashes broke out overnight, following skirmishes in the predominantly Druze locality of Jaramana that took 17 lives, according to authorities and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

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"We didn't sleep all night ... mortar shells are hitting our homes," said Samer Rafaa, a resident of Sahnaya where part of the population is Druze, in a phone interview with AFP.

"Where are the authorities? We implore them to assume their role ... people are dying, and we have injured ones," he added.

According to a Health Ministry source cited by the Sana agency, 11 people were killed and others injured by shots from "outlaw groups targeting civilians and security forces in the Sahnaya region."

This includes five security forces members targeted by snipers belonging to armed groups and six other people in a car that was targeted by these groups, said Ali al-Rifai, director of public relations at the Ministry of Information.

According to the SOHR, two Druze fighters were also killed in Sahnaya.

- "A body on the road" -

"The clashes started about four kilometers from the town and spread to its outskirts, and the sound of explosions hasn't stopped since last night," Karam, a 27-year-old Druze fighter who did not give his last name, told AFP.

"There is a body on the road right in front of me, and no one can approach it," added the young man reached by phone, while shots could be clearly heard.

On Wednesday, funerals were held for seven Druze fighters killed in Jaramana, mourners brandished the five-colored Druze flag, observed by AFP journalists.

An agreement had been signed Tuesday night between Syrian government representatives and Druze leaders in Jaramana to end the confrontations.

The attack on this suburb was conducted by groups affiliated with the power after an audio message attributed to a Druze and deemed blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed circulated on social networks.

AFP could not verify the message's authenticity, and Druze spiritual leaders condemned any offense to the prophet.

Following Assad's fall on Dec. 8, after more than 13 years of civil war, Israel has multiplied its gestures of openness towards this community.

In early March, following skirmishes in Jaramana, Israel threatened military intervention if the new Syrian authorities, committed to protecting minorities, targeted the Druze.

Druze dignitaries immediately rejected these remarks, reaffirming their attachment to the unity of the multiconfessional country.

Their representatives are currently negotiating with the central power in Damascus an agreement that would allow the integration of their armed groups into the future national army.