U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner at the White House on Monday as he pressed the Israeli prime minister to end the devastating Gaza war.

Indirect negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas resumed in Qatar on Tuesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a deal to end the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Monday U.S. President Donald Trump, who expressed hope for a "deal this week" between Israel and Hamas that sees hostages released from the Gaza Strip.

Israel said early Monday that it carried out a wave of strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeida and other areas held by the Houthi rebels.

Israel's military said Monday it had apprehended members of an Iran-backed cell in southern Syria, the second such operation it has announced in the past week.

Since the December overthrow of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes primarily on military sites and carried out cross-border ground raids.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the outbreak of his country's recent 12-day war with Israel, taking part in a religious ceremony in Tehran, state media reported.

Britain reestablished full diplomatic relations with Syria on Saturday, more than a decade after cutting ties, as Foreign Secretary David Lammy met the country's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was sending a negotiating team to Qatar Sunday for talks on a truce in Gaza, but rejected Hamas's earlier ceasefire proposals.

Syrian rescuers evacuated residential areas in Latakia province because of major forest fires, authorities said on Friday.

Hamas has said it is ready to start talks "immediately" on a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the civil defense agency said Israel's ongoing offensive killed more than 50 people.