When protests over the Israel-Hamas war took root on Columbia University's campus last spring, Mahmoud Khalil became a familiar, outspoken figure in a student movement that soon spread to other U.S. colleges.

The international-affairs graduate student was a fixture in and around the protest encampment on Columbia's Manhattan campus, serving as a spokesperson and negotiator for demonstrators who deplored Israel's military campaign in Gaza and pressed the Ivy League school to cut financial ties with Israel and companies that supported the war.

Israel's defense minister warned Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa that Israel “is watching him from the heights of Mt. Hermon,” which Israeli forces captured as part of a buffer zone inside Syria last year, and said Israel struck 40 military targets overnight in southern Syria.

Israel plans to allow members of the Druze minority from Syria to work in Israeli-controlled parts of the Golan Heights as soon as the coming week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Tuesday issued from Mt. Hermon. He stressed that Israel plans to remain in the Syrian buffer zone for an “indefinite period” to ensure that southern Syria remains demilitarized and does not pose a threat to residents of Israel or the Golan Heights.

The Iran-backed rebels’ secretive leader had warned Friday that attacks against Israel-linked vessels would resume within four days if Israel didn’t let aid into Gaza. As the deadline passed Tuesday, the Houthis said they were again banning Israeli vessels from the waters off Yemen.

Although no attacks were reported, the warning has put shippers on edge. The rebels targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors.

Residents in northeastern Syria danced in the streets to celebrate a breakthrough pact between local Kurdish-led authorities and the new central government, while thousands of people continued to flee other areas where sectarian violence has targeted Alawites.

The mostly ethnic Kurdish revelers in the northeastern city Qamishli chanted "One, one, one — the Syrian people are one," as cars drove by honking in celebration following Monday night's declaration, which includes a ceasefire and integration of Kurdish forces into the national army.

For several days, Syria's Mediterranean coast has been gripped by extreme violence that has seen mass killings mainly targeting members of the Alawite minority.

Authorities have not provided a toll, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor put the number of dead at 1,225 civilians, mostly Alawites. Human Rights Watch said "hundreds" were killed.

Israeli fire has killed four people and wounded 14 in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, Palestinian officials said, even as a fragile ceasefire with Hamas has largely held.

Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians who the army says had approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas in violation of the January truce.

A fact-finding committee formed by Syria's new authorities to investigate a wave of deadly violence said on Tuesday the country was determined to "prevent unlawful revenge".

"The new Syria is determined to enshrine justice and the rule of law, protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens, prevent unlawful revenge and guarantee that there is no impunity," committee spokesman Yasser al-Farhan said at a press conference in Damascus.

Members of Syria's small Christian community on the coast are living in fear after attacks killed more than 1,000 mostly Alawite civilians, with Christians reportedly caught up in the violence.

The Syrian presidency has announced an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the institutions of the autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast into the national government.

Israel's military said on Tuesday that its warplanes struck southern Syria overnight, targeting air defense systems and other military sites in the latest attack on the neighboring country.