The Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that dozens of its troops were flown into Syria in September to destroy an underground missile factory funded by Iran.

Israel bombed Syrian army positions south of Aleppo on Thursday, the latest such strikes since the overthrow of longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor and local residents said.

Israel's military reported that it shot down a missile and a drone launched from Yemen on Friday, the latest in a series of attacks from the country targeting Israel in recent weeks.

Protesters in Syria held a sit-in Wednesday demanding justice for four activists who were forcibly disappeared in 2013 and whose fate remains one of the most haunting mysteries of the country's 13-year civil war.

On Dec. 9, 2013, gunmen stormed the Violation Documentation Center in Douma, northeast of Damascus, and took Razan Zaitouneh, her husband Wael Hamadeh, Samira Khalil and Nazem Hammadi.

The Israeli military says it targeted a senior member of Hamas’ internal security apparatus in a strike in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian officials say killed nine other people, including three children.

The strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter.

The Palestinian Authority has ordered the suspension of broadcasts by Qatar-based Al Jazeera and on Thursday accused it of incitement, which the news channel compared to Israeli practices.

Al Jazeera is already banned from broadcasting from Israel amid a long-running feud with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Syrian security forces are conducting an operation in Homs city, state media reported on Thursday, with a monitor saying it targeted two districts that are home to the Alawite minority of toppled president Bashar al-Assad.

"The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the Military Operations Department, begins a wide-scale combing operation in the neighborhoods of Homs city," state news agency SANA said quoting a security official.

Israel has warned that it will intensify its strikes in Gaza if Hamas keeps up its rocket fire, as Palestinian rescuers reported dozens of deaths from Israeli strikes on the first day of the New Year.

Syria's top diplomat said he hoped to open a "new, bright page" with Saudi Arabia upon arriving in the kingdom Wednesday, the first foreign visit for Syria's new rulers, who seized power last month.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday launched a humanitarian air bridge to Syria, delivering food, shelter and medical supplies, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.