Islamist-led rebels battled army troops on Tuesday as they advanced towards the city of Hama in central Syria, a war monitor said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies fought some of the "most violent" clashes with troops in the area since launching a lightning offensive last week, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

The surprise resurgence of Syria's civil war is shaking the table for the United States, which tried to turn the page years ago on a devastating conflict where it saw few good outcomes.

The latest turmoil in a chaotic region comes less than a couple months before the return of President-elect Donald Trump, whose team could see an unexpected opportunity as part of its bid to reshape the Middle East, albeit with plenty of question marks.

An Israeli air strike hit a car on the Damascus airport road on Tuesday, causing it to explode, Syria's official news agency SANA reported.

"A car exploded after it was targeted in an Israeli aggression on the road to Damascus International Airport," SANA reported, killing one person, without saying who was targeted.

Russia's army said Tuesday that its forces had captured two more villages in Ukraine, claiming advances along the southeastern front.

The villages of Novodarivka in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Romanivka in the eastern Donetsk region had been seized, the military posted on Telegram.

President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a strategic partnership on Monday aimed at deepening bilateral ties and de-escalating conflict in the Middle East, including Lebanon, where the two leaders called for presidential elections.

The French leader arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday for a three-day state visit just as a political crisis threatens to topple the French government.

The United States said Monday it believed that a ceasefire was still holding in Lebanon and that it was looking at potential violations.

"The ceasefire is holding," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters after Lebanon accused Israel of violating the truce, and Israel in turn accused Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of a "serious" breach.

Israel conducted air strikes in Lebanon on Monday after vowing retaliation for an attack claimed by Hezbollah, the militant group's first since a fragile ceasefire between the two sides took effect last week.

Israeli warplanes launched strikes on the outskirts of the town of Jbaa, about 20 kilometers from the border, as well as the Deir al-Zahrani area, the National News Agency said. The Israeli army also raided Buslayya in the southern region of Iqlim al-Tuffah, Srayra in the Jezzine region, Yaroun and Berghoz, amid artillery shelling on the outskirts of Rashaya al-Fukhar and the Khiam plain.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah of a "serious violation" of the ceasefire in Lebanon on Monday after the group targeted a military position in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

"Hezbollah's firing at Har Dov (Shebaa Farms) is a serious violation of the ceasefire and Israel will respond forcefully. We are determined to uphold the ceasefire and respond to any violation by Hezbollah, no matter how minor or serious," Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to a disputed area on the Israel-Lebanon border known internationally as Shebaa Farms.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected U.S. and French accusations on Monday that Israel was violating the terms of a truce that came into effect in Lebanon last week.

"I emphasized that Israel is not violating the ceasefire understandings but rather enforcing them in response to Hezbollah’s violations," Saar posted on X, adding that the presence of Hezbollah south of the Litani is "a fundamental violation of the agreement" and that "they must move north."

Russian and Syrian air strikes in northwestern Syria on Monday killed 11 civilians, five of them children, a Syria war monitor said.

"Joint raids conducted by Russian and Syrian warplanes on several areas including Idlib city and a camp for the displaced to its north" left 11 civilians dead and wounded dozens of others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.