Israel's air force has struck near Syria's presidential palace hours after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.

Israel’s Netanyahu said the strike was a warning to the Syrian government not to deploy troops to the south and to prevent violence against the Druze minority.

Israel bombed an area near the presidential palace in Damascus early on Friday, in its clearest warning yet to Syria's new Islamist-led authorities of its readiness to ramp up military action in the name of the country's Druze minority.