Western diplomats were passing near Syria's defense ministry in Damascus in an armored convoy when Israel struck the building with several missiles on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter, including a Syrian eyewitness.

No-one in the convoy was injured and it continued on its way, the people said, declining to give further details on the nationalities or number of those involved.

Israel launched powerful airstrikes on Damascus on Wednesday, blowing up part of the defense ministry and hitting near the presidential palace, while also striking government security forces operating against militants from the country's Druze minority in the southern province of Sweida.

A Syrian medical source said the strikes on the ministry killed five members of the security forces.

Israel says its strikes were part of an effort to protect the Druze minority in southern Syria, an assertion rejected by Syria's president, who said Israel aimed to undermine the new government's efforts to bring the country together.