Suwayda, the Druze community is facing what its members have described as an "ethnic cleansing campaign" amidst a rapidly deteriorating security situation that has claimed the lives of hundreds over the past week.

The Druze, a religious sect with roots in Ismailism, have faced violence in Syria. Their practices are secretive, with no conversions or intermarriage allowed.

Syria's Druze are concentrated in the southwest in the Sweida region bordering Jordan and in areas of Quneitra province, near the occupied Golan. They also reside in the Damascus

Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze religious minority that threatened to unravel the country’s fragile post-war transition.

At the center of a crisis in Syria are the Druze — a secretive religious minority that long carved out a precarious identity across Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

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.

One woman tells the BBC she cowered in her home waiting for gunmen to enter and "decide whether we should live or die".