A bulk carrier sank days after an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early Wednesday, the second ship sunk in the rebels' campaign.

The sinking of the Tutor in the Red Sea marks what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign targeting shipping through the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

A Syrian army officer was killed Wednesday in an Israeli air strike in the country's south, the official SANA news agency reported, citing a military source.

"The Israeli enemy carried out an aggression using drones against two military positions of our armed forces in the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa," the agency said, adding the attack resulted in the death of the officer and material damage.

A senior Israeli negotiator told AFP that tens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are certainly alive and that Israel cannot accept halting the war until all captives are released in a deal.

Thousands of Israelis protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government on Monday over the Gaza war and failure to negotiate the release of scores of hostages still held in the Palestinian territory.

Israel struck Gaza on Monday and witnesses reported blasts in the besieged territory's south, but fighting had largely subsided amid an army-declared "pause" to facilitate aid flows.

The relative calm came as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet, reflecting Israel's political fractures.

Gaza saw its first day of relative calm in months Sunday, after Israel's military said it would "pause" fighting daily around a southern route to facilitate aid flows, following repeated U.N. warnings of famine in the Palestinian territory.

"Compared with the previous days, today, the first day of Eid al-Adha, is considered near calm and the calm has prevailed across all of Gaza," Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the civil defense agency in Hamas-ruled Gaza, told AFP.

President Joe Biden used his Eid al-Adha message to Muslims to advocate a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal in Gaza, saying Sunday it was the best way to help civilians suffering the "horrors of war between Hamas and Israel."

Israel's military said Sunday it would "pause" fighting around a south Gaza route daily to facilitate aid deliveries, following months of warnings of famine in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The announcement of a "local, tactical pause of military activity" during daylight hours in an area of Rafah came a day after eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast near the far-southern city and three more troops died elsewhere, in one of the heaviest losses for the army in its war against Hamas militants.

The Israeli military said eight soldiers were killed in Gaza Saturday when their armored vehicle was struck by a bomb, in one of the deadliest blows for the Israeli army since the war began in October.

Captain Wassem Mahmud, 23, and seven other soldiers "fell during operational activity in southern Gaza," the military said in a statement.

Senior Israeli officials said that comments by the defense minister, who rejected a French initiative to contain tensions on the Lebanese border over "hostile policies against Israel," do not reflect the government's position.