The German government said Wednesday that it was evacuating around 24 of its nationals from the war-battered Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Gaza the previous day, in which he vowed to keep up Israel's offensive against Hamas.

Gaza's civil defense agency reported that Israeli air strikes in the early hours of Wednesday killed at least 11 people, including women and children.

The presidents of Lebanon and Syria arrived in Qatar on separate visits Tuesday, the first official trips by both leaders to the wealthy Gulf state since taking office.

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha, the Qatari leader's office said in a statement.

Israel's defense minister said Wednesday that troops will remain in so-called security zones in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely, remarks that could further complicate talks with Hamas over a ceasefire and hostage release.

Israeli forces have taken over more than half of Gaza in a renewed campaign to pressure Hamas to release hostages after Israel ended their ceasefire last month. Israel has also refused to withdraw from some areas in Lebanon following a ceasefire with Hezbollah last year, and it seized a buffer zone in southern Syria after rebels overthrew President Bashar Assad in December.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country would keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering the war-battered Gaza Strip, where intense aerial and ground assaults have resumed.

Jordan's intelligence service on Tuesday announced the arrests of 16 people for allegedly planning to target national security and sow "chaos", state media reported.

France's President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that he told Israel's leader in a phone call that the suffering of Gazan civilians "must end" and that only a ceasefire in Gaza could free remaining Israeli hostages.

"The ordeal the civilian populations of Gaza are going through must end," Macron posted on X after the talk with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for "the opening of all humanitarian aid crossings" into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Syria's new president was travelling to Qatar on Tuesday for his first official visit to the Gulf state, a key backer of the new administration after longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad's ouster, a minister said.

"Today we are accompanying President Ahmed al-Sharaa on his first presidential visit to the country that has stood by Syrians from day one and has never abandoned them," Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said in a statement on social network X. He accompanied the post with a photo of the Syrian and Qatari flags.

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement will "most likely" respond to an Israeli ceasefire proposal it received through mediators within 48 hours.

"Hamas will most likely send its response to the mediators within the next 48 hours, as the movement is still conducting in-depth consultations... within its leadership framework, as well as with resistance factions, in order to formulate a unified position", the official told AFP.