The U.S. government's top hostage negotiator is in Beirut in hopes of collecting information on the whereabouts of Austin Tice, an American journalist missing in Syria for 12 years, the State Department said.

Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, is talking to officials in the region following the overthrow of Bashar Assad's government to find out where Tice is and "get him home as soon as possible," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Monday.

Saudi Arabia has condemned Israel’s incursion into a buffer zone in Syria and a wave of Israeli airstrikes launched after the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that “the assaults carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and the targeting of Syrian territory confirm Israel’s continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.”

Members of the Syrian government under ousted President Bashar Assad will gradually transfer power to a new transitional cabinet headed by Mohammed al-Bashir.

The outgoing government met with al-Bashir for the first time since Assad fled Damascus over the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified in court on Tuesday, as he faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases.

Netanyahu has repeatedly requested to delay his testimony because of the conflicts roiling the Middle East but was mostly denied by the courts. The long-running trial comes as Netanyahu is already facing accusations by critics in Israel of dragging out the war in Gaza and putting off a cease-fire deal that could release some 100 hostages who remain in the territory after 14 months of war triggered by the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Israeli military on Tuesday denied reports that its tanks were advancing towards Damascus, insisting that Israeli forces were stationed in a buffer zone near the Israeli-Syrian border.

"The reports circulated by some media outlets claiming that the Israeli Defense Forces (military) are advancing towards or nearing Damascus are completely false," military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X. "The IDF forces are stationed within the buffer zone and at defensive points near the border in order to protect Israel's borders."

Massive U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Syria were meant in part as a message to the group and a move to ensure that it doesn't try to take advantage of the chaos following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad's government.

The U.S. and its partners want to make sure the Islamic State group, which still has a presence in Syria, can't step into the leadership void and once again exert control over wide swaths of the country, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Monday. The U.S. on Sunday struck about 75 IS targets in the Syrian desert.

Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday. Israel denied its forces were advancing toward Damascus after they pushed into a buffer zone inside Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

Associated Press reporters in the capital heard heavy airstrikes overnight and into Tuesday on the city and its suburbs. Photographs circulating online showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters and warplanes.

Syrian insurgents who toppled President Bashar Assad said they won't impose any religious dress code on women and vowed to guarantee personal freedom for everyone.

In a statement posted on social media, the insurgents' General Command said “it is strictly forbidden to interfere with women’s dress or impose any request related to their clothing or appearance, including requests for modesty.”

Israel conducted strikes Monday targeting positions of the deposed Syrian government's army including in Damascus, the south and the coast, a war monitor said, the latest in a series of attacks since rebels took over a day earlier.

"Israeli strikes targeted military sites, including weapons depots housing anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor told AFP. "Israel is deliberately destroying anything it perceives as a threat," he added.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will travel to Israel this week for talks on Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, and on a truce deal in Gaza, the White House said Monday.

Sullivan will meet Israeli officials to discuss "efforts to reach a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza, the latest developments in Syria, and for discussions about Lebanon and Iran," National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said.