Israel this week introduced what it said was a new U.S. ceasefire plan — different from the one it agreed to in January — and is trying to force Hamas to accept it by imposing a siege on the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to it as the "Witkoff proposal," saying it came from U.S. President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff. But the White House has yet to confirm that, saying only that it supports whatever action Israel takes.

Israel's army said it struck on Monday a "suspicious motorized vessel" off the coast of south Gaza's Khan Younis, the day after Israel blocked aid to the Palestinian territory during an impasse over extending the truce.

"Earlier today, a suspicious motorized vessel off the coast of northern Khan Younis... was struck by the (military)", the army said in a statement. It said troops also "identified two suspects approaching them in southern Gaza, posing an immediate threat", before they "opened fire toward the suspects to remove the threat, and hits were identified".

Israel faced sharp criticism as it stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza on Sunday and warned of "additional consequences" for Hamas if a fragile ceasefire isn't extended.

Mediators Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of violating humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon.

The forces of Syria's new authorities deployed Sunday in a Damascus suburb following deadly clashes with Druze gunmen, state media said amid tensions after Israeli demands to protect the minority group.

Jaramana, a mostly Druze and Christian suburb of the capital, saw a fatal shooting at a checkpoint on Friday, followed a day later by clashes between security forces and local gunmen tasked with protecting the area, according to a war monitor.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for sending munitions held up by the previous administration, which would help "finish the job against Iran's terror axis".

Netanyahu has long expressed his opposition to Iran, its nuclear program and its proxies, which include Palestinian militant group Hamas with which Israel has been fighting in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

A 70-year-old man was killed and four other people were wounded in a stabbing attack Monday in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Israeli authorities said the assailant was killed.

Israel's police said the perpetrator was a member of Israel's Druze Arab minority who recently returned from abroad.

Israel's defense ministry said the military has been instructed to prepare to defend a Druze settlement in the suburbs of Damascus, asserting that the minority it has vowed to protect was "under attack" by Syrian forces.

The statement, citing an order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, follows an Israeli warning last weekend that the forces of neighboring Syria's new government and the insurgent group that led last year's ouster of former President Bashar Assad should not enter the area south of Damascus.

Israel stopped the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip on Sunday and warned of "additional consequences" if Hamas does not accept a new proposal for an extension of the first phase of a fragile ceasefire.

Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the truce and said its decision to cut off aid was "cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack on the (ceasefire) agreement." Both sides stopped short of saying the ceasefire had ended.

The first phase of the Israel-Hamas truce is drawing to a close on Saturday, but negotiations on the next stage, which should secure a permanent ceasefire, have so far been inconclusive.

The Trump administration has approved a major nearly $3 billion arms sale to Israel, bypassing a normal congressional review to provide the country with more of the 2,000-pound bombs that it has used in the war against Hamas in Gaza.

In a series of notifications sent to Congress late Friday, the State Department said it had signed off on the sale of more than 35,500 MK 84 and BLU-117 bombs and 4,000 Predator warheads worth $2.04 billion.