Israeli strikes hit Syria's Aleppo airport on Wednesday, a war monitor said, in what was the fourth such incident in two weeks as regional tensions simmer over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

"Israel renewed its air aggressions on Syria... bombing Aleppo International Airport on Wednesday afternoon," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Israeli strikes killed eight soldiers in southern Syria early Wednesday, Syrian state media reported, in what the Israeli army said was a response to earlier rocket fire.

On October 23, 1983, attacks on French and U.S. troops in Lebanon's capital Beirut left hundreds dead -- 40 years on, survivors are horrified at today's upsurge in violence.

An Israeli 85-year-old freed by Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday she "went through hell" during her abduction, but was treated well during more than two weeks held captive in Gaza.

Yocheved Lifshitz was a resident of Nir Oz kibbutz, one of the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip which Hamas militants attacked on October 7.

French President Emmanuel Macron was Tuesday set to become the first Western leader to meet both Israel's premier and the Palestinian president, more than two weeks into the brutal Gaza conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

As Israel battles Gaza's Hamas after suffering the worst attack in its 75-year history, Macron visited to express solidarity but also to stress the need to protect Gaza's civilian population in the withering bombing campaign since.

The United States has accused Iran of "actively facilitating" attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East as it confirmed it had sent a small number of military advisors to Israel.

U.S. concerns have been rising about the potential for escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas militants, although Washington has rejected calls for a ceasefire as it says that ally Israel has a right to self-defense.

Cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah have been gaining pace. But does the powerful Lebanese movement really seek to enter open conflict with Israel?

Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.

More than 19,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid an uptick in tensions between Israel and Hezbollah at the country's southern border, figures released Monday by a United Nations agency showed.

"An increase in cross-border incidents" has resulted in the displacement of 19,646 people in Lebanon, "both within the south and elsewhere within the country", said the International Organization for Migration.

The United States warned Iran or its allies against any "escalation" in the wake of Israel's war with Hamas, two top U.S. officials said, hours after the Pentagon moved to step up military readiness in the region.

With tensions mounting, Washington also announced Sunday it had ordered non-emergency staff to leave its embassy in Iraq.

Shocked by images of dead children in Gaza, Mustafa al-Sayyid quickly whisked his family to the closest shelter when Israeli strikes began near his village in southern Lebanon this week.

"What we are seeing on television -- the massacres happening in Gaza, the children -- it cuts your heart to pieces," said the 53-year-old from Beit Leef, barely six kilometers from the Israeli border.