Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a "genocidal campaign" against his community after two days of sectarian clashes left 102 people dead.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned his country would respond "with significant force" if Syria's new authorities fail to protect the Druze minority, whose representatives rejected any attempt to force them out.
The violence poses a serious challenge to the Islamist authorities who ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria's Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly from Assad's Alawite community, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Hijri denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an "unjustifiable genocidal campaign" against the Druze.
He called in a statement for immediate intervention by "international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes".
Israel has ramped up support of Syria's Druze, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urging the international community to "fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror".
In a statement, Katz said: "Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force."
At a meeting of Druze leaders, elders and armed groups in the city of Sweida, the community agreed it was "an inseparable part of the unified Syrian homeland", a spokesperson said.
"We reject partition, separation, or disengagement," the spokesperson added.
The Syrian Observatory said the fighting had involved security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups.
The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the 102 death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya's former mayor, Husam Warwar.
In the southern Druze heartland province of Sweida, it said 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 in an "ambush" on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.
The monitor told AFP the fighters were killed "by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defence and gunmen associated with them".
The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.
AFP was unable to confirm the recording's authenticity.
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