The United States announced a $2.5 billion security assistance package for Ukraine on Monday as Washington races to provide aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

A Syria war monitor said 31 combatants had been killed since Sunday in ongoing battles between Turkey-backed groups and Kurdish-led forces.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga urged new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday to expel Russia from the country during an unannounced visit to Damascus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to undergo prostate removal surgery on Sunday, his office said after he was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection.

The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles fired from northern Gaza toward Israel on Saturday, as the army continued its sweeping offensive in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The top diplomats of China and Iran agreed Saturday that the Middle East is "not a battleground for the big powers" and should not be an arena of geopolitical competition between countries outside the region.

The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen early Saturday, a day after the Houthi-held capital Sanaa was hit by fresh air strikes.

The head of Russia's civil aviation agency said Friday that Ukrainian drones were attacking the city of Grozny as an Azerbaijani Airlines plane was trying to land there, before it later crashed in Kazakhstan.

Dmitry Yadrov also said on Telegram that there was heavy fog over Grozny when the incident occurred Wednesday and "conditions that day and in those hours around the airport were very complicated".

Iran's top diplomat warned Friday against "destructive interference" in Syria's future and said decisions should lie solely with the country's people, writing in Chinese state media as he visited Beijing.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved parliament on Friday and confirmed the expected date for the early general election prompted by the collapse of Olaf Scholz's government last month.

"I have decided to dissolve the 20th German Bundestag to fix the date for an early election for February 23rd," Steinmeier said in a speech, adding that "political stability in Germany is a precious asset".