Israel's former defense minister Moshe Yaalon on Saturday accused the Israeli army of "ethnic cleansing" in the Gaza Strip, sparking an outcry in the country.

Hamas is open to discussing "all ideas and proposals," a senior official of the Palestinian militant group told AFP, as representatives arrived in Cairo Saturday for talks on a possible ceasefire in Gaza.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday that his country's security was key to the stability of the whole region.

Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said Sunday he will leave Tehran for Damascus to deliver a message of support for Syria's government and armed forces, state media said, after a lighting advance by rebels.

Syrian government troops battled insurgents inside the country's largest city Aleppo for the first time since 2016, while warplanes targeted rebel supply lines on the city's edge, state media reported Saturday.

Turkey Friday demanded an end to "attacks" on the rebel enclave of Idlib in Syria, where Syrian and Russian warplanes reportedly launched airstrikes.

"We have emphasized that these attacks must come to an end," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a message on X. "The recent clashes have resulted in an undesirable escalation of tensions in the region."

Two children and a 50-year-old woman were crushed to death Friday as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, medical officials said.

The flow of food allowed into Gaza by Israel has fallen to nearly its lowest level of the almost 14-month-old war for the past two months, according to Israeli official figures. U.N. and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gaza’s population, almost all of which relies on humanitarian aid to survive.

Hamas claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank on Friday that wounded eight people, including four soldiers.

It was the latest violence to scar the territory as tensions run high 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war.

Insurgents breached Syria's second-largest city Aleppo after blowing up two car bombs on Friday and were clashing with government forces on the city's western edge, according to a Syria war monitor and fighters.

It was the first time the city has been attacked by opposition forces since 2016, when they were ousted from Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which Syrian government forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.

Jihadists and their allies cut a major highway linking the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo on Thursday after launching an offensive against government forces in Syria's northwest, a war monitor said.

"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions cut off the Damascus-Aleppo international M5 highway... in addition to controlling the junction between the M4 and M5 highways," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.