The Palestinian health ministry said Thursday that an Israeli air strike on a car killed four Palestinians and wounded three near the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem.

The ministry announced that the Palestinians were killed "as a result of the (Israeli) bombing of a vehicle in Tulkarem camp", which the Israeli army did not immediately confirm to AFP.

Efforts to strike a Gaza truce and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly failed over key stumbling blocks, but recent negotiations have raised hope of an agreement.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he remained hopeful of reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, after Washington expressed Tuesday "cautious optimism" on the possibility of an "imminent deal".

The four sisters gathered by the side of the road, craning their necks to peer far beyond the razor wire-reinforced fence snaking across the mountain. One took off her jacket and waved it slowly above her head.

In the distance, a tiny white speck waved frantically from the hillside.

Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed a missile attack Thursday against Israel, which said it intercepted the threat and struck back before warning the Iran-backed movement it would "pay a heavy price".

The Houthis, who control most of Yemen's population centers, have repeatedly launched missiles at Israel since the Gaza war broke out more than a year ago.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stand on the fourth day of testimony in his corruption trials Wednesday, saying the accusations against him are “idiotic.”

Netanyahu, the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant, is on trial on charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.

The Damascus airport reopened Wednesday for the first time since the fall of the government of Bashar Assad, and the first civilian plane took off from Damascus and landed in the northern city of Aleppo.

The airport is currently open only to domestic flights, but Syrian airspace is open to international traffic.

Hundreds of Israeli students walked out of school Wednesday to call for an immediate deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza strip as there appears to be progress in ceasefire talks.

From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, students headed for central junctions, blocking roads and holding signs with the faces of the captives remaining in Gaza after 14 months of war.

Bones are visible here and there among the mounds of earth in a field south of Damascus, one of the mass graves around Syria believed to hold the bodies of tens of thousands of people killed under Bashar Assad's rule. With his ouster, residents, forensic teams and international groups face what could be a yearslong task of unearthing the dead.

In this site alone, by the town of Najha, several tens of thousands of bodies could have been buried, said Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues who was visiting the site Tuesday. Some are believed buried under already existing graves of a regular cemetery nearby, he said.

High in the mountains of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the town of Majdal Shams is home to members of one of the Middle East's most insular religious minorities: the Druze.

With its roots in 10th century Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam, the roughly 1 million-strong minority is spread across Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights.

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, entered Syrian territory Tuesday and said Israeli troops would remain in the area indefinitely, blurring the border with its northern neighbor.

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has never had fully recognized borders. Throughout its history, the frontiers with its Arab neighbors have shifted as a result of wars, annexations, ceasefires and peace agreements.