President-elect Donald Trump's incoming Middle East envoy recently visited Israel and Qatar for high-level talks on landing a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, a U.S. official said Thursday.

Steve Witkoff, who was tapped by Trump to serve as his special envoy to the region, met separately in recent weeks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iran said Friday it conducted a successful space launch, the latest for its program the West alleges improves Tehran's ballistic missile program.

Iran conducted the launch using its Simorgh program, a satellite-carrying rocket that had had a series of failed launches, at Iran's Imam Khomeini Spaceport in rural Semnan province. That's the site of Iran's civilian space program.

Syrian insurgents entered two central towns early Friday just north of the central city of Homs, bringing them closer Syria's third largest city, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media both reported.

The break into Rastan and Talbiseh came a day after opposition gunmen captured the central city of Hama, Syria's fourth largest, after the Syrian army said it withdrew to avoid fighting inside the city and spare the lives of civilians.

By Jasmin Lilian Diab, Lebanese American University

(THE CONVERSATION) The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has brought a cautious sense of relief to a Lebanese population battered by a yearlong conflict, not least the more than 1 million people displaced during the escalation of violence between September and November 2024.

Syrian insurgents entered the central city of Hama Thursday after days of intense clashes with government forces as they push forward with their week-long offensive that brought large parts of Syria under their control.

The Syrian army said it has withdrawn from Hama after insurgents broke through its defenses marking another setback for President Bashar Assad, days after losing the country's largest city. The Syrian army said it redeployed from Hama and took positions outside the city to protect the lives of civilians.

The OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries will decide Thursday whether to put off plans to pump more crude amid sluggish demand and competing production from non-allied countries -- factors that could keep oil prices stagnant into next year.

Key beneficiaries of that would be U.S. motorists, who have seen gasoline prices fall to their lowest in 2 1/2 years to near $3 a gallon.

Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.

The human rights group released a report Thursday in the Middle East that said such actions could not be justified by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, which ignited the war, or the presence of militants in civilian areas. Amnesty said the United States and other allies of Israel could be complicit in genocide, and called on them to halt arms shipments.

A Palestinian health official said Wednesday that at least 21 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a camp housing displaced people in Gaza. Atif Al-Hout, the director of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, said at least 28 people were wounded in the strike.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck senior Hamas militants “involved in terrorist activities” in the area. The military said that the strike had set off secondary explosions, indicating explosives present in the area were set off. It was not possible to independently confirm the Israeli claims, and the strike could also have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the camp.

Israel’s army said it had struck a launcher in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, one week after the start of a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

"A launcher that was identified in Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon, violating the agreements between Israel and Lebanon and posing a threat to the State of Israel, was struck by the (Israeli Air Force)," the military said in a statement, adding it had also "dismantled weapons" in three locations of southern Lebanon.

Federal authorities on Tuesday urged telecommunication companies to boost network security following a sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.

The guidance issued by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. Officials who briefed reporters on the recommendations said the U.S. still doesn't know the true scope of China's attack or the extent to which Chinese hackers still have access to U.S. networks.