A French delegation arrived Tuesday at the country's embassy in Damascus, the first visit of diplomats from France since Bashar al-Assad's ouster by Islamist-led rebels.

Visiting French special envoy for Syria Jean-Francois Guillaume said his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period.

After months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas appear to be moving closer toward a ceasefire to end their 14-month war.

Top officials from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt have resumed their mediation efforts in recent weeks and reported greater willingness by the warring sides to wrap up a deal. In a key concession, Hamas officials say they are prepared to show more "flexibility" on the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said Monday that a deal is closer than ever.

Israel said it will close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed over 46 people including several children.

The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister has described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, it would recognize a Palestinian state.

A rebel force deployed to a village in southeastern Damascus to stop looters who swarmed a residential complex and set some apartments on fire.

The raid by the rebel force comes a week after the fighters marched on the Syrian capital in their lightening offensive that forced Syrian President Bashar Assad to flee, ending five decades of his family rule.

Bashar al-Assad said Monday his departure from Syria was not planned and that Moscow requested his evacuation from a military base that was under attack, in the former president's first statement since his ouster.

"My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles," said a statement on the ousted presidency's Telegram channel, adding "Moscow requested... an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday December 8" after he moved to Latakia early that day.

Syria's Kurds, who run a semi-autonomous administration in the northeast, called Monday for an end to all fighting in the country and extended a hand to the new authorities in Damascus.

In a statement at a press conference in Raqa, the Kurdish administration called for "a stop to military operations over the entire Syrian territory in order to begin a constructive, comprehensive national dialogue", more than a week after Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad's government.

The Israeli government has approved a plan to increase the population of the annexed Golan Heights, while insisting it had no intention of confronting Syria after seizing a U.N.-monitored buffer zone.

As Islamist-led rebel forces swept Syrian president Bashar al-Assad out of power last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered troops to seize the demilitarized zone between the two countries' forces on the Golan Heights.

Governments worldwide are stepping up efforts to engage with Syria's new interim rulers, just over a week after Islamist-led rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad, ending decades of brutal rule and civil war.

The lightning offensive that captured the capital Damascus on December 8 led to celebrations across the country and beyond.

Personal photos of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad have surfaced from his abandoned residences, sparking ridicule among Syrians who until days ago were persecuted for criticizing his carefully crafted public image.

The intimate and candid photos, reportedly discovered in albums from Assad's mansions in the hills of Damascus and Aleppo, offer a stark contrast to the polished, glamorous image that Assad and his father projected as they led Syria for half a century.

In central Gaza's Nuseirat urban refugee camp, mourners gathered Monday for the funeral of a Palestinian journalist working for Al-Jazeera who was killed the day before in a strike on a point for Gaza’s civil defense agency. They carried him through the street from the hospital, his blue bulletproof vest resting atop his body.

Al-Jazeera said Ahmad Baker al-Louh, 39, had been covering rescue operations of a family wounded in an earlier bombing when he was killed.