Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called for "political dialogue" between the Syrian government and opposition groups after a lightning offensive by rebel forces.

Turkey's foreign minister will meet with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Doha on Saturday to try to find a solution to the renewed fighting in Syria and avoid chaos on its doorstep.

The three countries have been partners since 2017 in the Astana process seeking to end the civil war in Syria even if they have supported opposite sides on the battlefield.

The prime minister of Qatar says he has seen new momentum in Gaza ceasefire efforts since the U.S. presidential election, with the incoming Trump administration seeking an end to the conflict before it takes office.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a key mediator in the ceasefire efforts, declined to give specifics of the negotiations but told an international conference in Doha that the gaps between the sides are not large.

Rebels on a lightning advance through Syria said on Saturday they have begun to encircle Damascus as government forces denied they had withdrawn from areas near the capital.

Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani sought to reassure religious minorities on Saturday after Islamist-led fighters snatched key cities and swathes of territory from government control.

Syrian opposition activists said insurgents have captured a main border crossing with Jordan forcing Syrian authorities to leave it.

Shortly afterward, Jordan’s Interior Minister al-Frayeh said the Naseeb border crossing with Syria had been closed because of the security situation on the Syrian side.

Gaza's civil defense agency said 29 people were killed on Friday in Israeli strikes near the Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia, where Israel is pressing a major offensive.

"At least 29 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip since dawn on Friday as a result of the continuing Israeli shelling around Kamal Adwan hospital," said civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

A war monitor said Syrian government troops pulled out of the central city of Homs on Friday in the face of an Islamist-led rebel offensive, but the defense ministry denied the report.

"Syrian soldiers have withdrawn from Homs city towards its outskirts," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. The ministry later said "there is no truth to news... about the army withdrawing from Homs".

The Israeli military said Friday it was "reinforcing aerial and ground forces" in the occupied Golan Heights in response to sweeping Islamist-led rebel advances in Syria.

In a statement, the military said it was "monitoring developments and is prepared for all scenarios, offensive and defensive alike", adding that it "will not tolerate any threat near the Israeli border".

The commander of a Kurdish-led force in Syria said Friday he was open to talks with Turkey and Islamist-led rebels, whose offensive had created a "new political and military reality".

"We want to de-escalate with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other parties and to solve our problems through dialogue" including with Turkey, Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls swathes of northeast Syria, told reporters. "We were surprised to see the sudden and rapid collapse of Syrian government forces on the frontlines as factions took control of large areas, imposing a new political and military reality," he added.