A fragile ceasefire went into effect in Lebanon and Israel last week but challenges still remain.

Israel continues to call on displaced Lebanese not to return to dozens of southern villages during the initial two-month halt to fighting. It also continues to impose a daily curfew for people moving across the Litani River between 5 pm and 7 am. Many families who want to bury their dead deep in southern Lebanon are unable to do so at this point.

Since a fragile ceasefire went into effect last week, Israel has violated the agreement dozens of times. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri counts more than 52.

The number of violations has risen since Speaker Berri's interview with al-Joumhouria newspaper was published Monday, on the sixth day of the truce. An Israeli drone strike wounded Monday a Lebanese army soldier in the eastern region of Hermel, while another drone targeted a motorcycle in Marjaayoun, killing a State Security agent on duty.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years Monday, just weeks after he was criticized by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for having a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That call came at a time of widespread speculation about what the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump will mean for Ukraine as the incoming president has promised to end the conflict. In a major shift, Zelensky signaled Friday that an an offer of NATO membership to territory under Kyiv's control could end "the hot stage of the war" in Ukraine.

The International Criminal Court's member states open their annual meeting Monday while the court faces pushback over arrest warrants for Israeli officials, sexual harassment allegations against the court's chief prosecutor and a very empty docket.

The Assembly of States Parties, which represents the ICC's 124 member countries, will convene its 23rd conference to elect committee members and approve the court's budget against a backdrop of unfavorable headlines.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday it is halting aid deliveries through the main cargo crossing into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip because of the threat of armed gangs who have looted convoys. It blamed the breakdown of law and order in large part on Israeli policies.

In Israel, a former defense minister and fierce critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and a hard-liner on the Palestinians — accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where a military offensive continues.

The Kremlin said Monday that it continued to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after jihadists last week wrested swathes of territory from government control.

"We of course continue to support Bashar al-Assad and we continue contacts at the appropriate levels, we are analysing the situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, adding that Russia would draw up a "position on what is necessary to stabilise the situation".

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman who is the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany, as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

Boulos arranged Trump campaign efforts to engage the Arab American community in Michigan, organizing dozens of meetings in areas with large Arab American populations angered by Democratic President Joe Biden's backing of Israel's offensives in Gaza and Lebanon. Trump won the majority Arab American city of Dearborn Heights on his way to sweeping Michigan and other swing states.

Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have deployed in Syria to back the government's counteroffensive against a surprise advance by insurgents who seized the largest city of Aleppo, a militia official and a war monitor said Monday.

Insurgents led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a two-pronged attack on Aleppo last week and moved into the countryside around Idlib and neighboring Hama province. Government troops built a fortified defensive line in northern Hama in an attempt to stall the insurgents' momentum while jets on Sunday pounded rebel-held lines.

The Syrian military rushed reinforcements to the northwest and launched airstrikes Sunday in an attempt to push back insurgents who seized the country's largest city of Aleppo, as Iran pledged to help the government counter the surprise offensive.

Iran has been a key political and military ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's civil war, but it was unclear how Tehran would support Damascus in the latest flareup. Insurgents led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a two-pronged attack on Aleppo and the countryside around Idlib on Wednesday, before moving toward neighboring Hama province.

U.S. Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels at the warships and three American merchant vessels they were escorting through the Gulf of Aden. No damage or injuries were reported.

U.S. Central Command said late Sunday that the destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O'Kane shot down and destroyed three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three drones and one anti-ship cruise missile. The merchant ships were not identified.