Operatives from Iran and Hezbollah are working inside Yemen to support Houthi insurgents' attacks on international shipping, a U.S. official said.

Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, told a Senate subcommittee that Iran's clerical state was "equipping and facilitating" the Houthi attacks, which have triggered retaliatory U.S. and British strikes on Yemen.

Israel and Hamas are inching toward a new deal that would free some of the roughly 130 hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a weekslong pause in the war, now in its fifth month.

U.S. President Joe Biden says a deal could go into effect as early as Monday, ahead of what is seen as an unofficial deadline — the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, around March 10.

A rocket exploded late Tuesday night off the side of a ship traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, authorities said, the latest suspected attack to be carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

The attack comes as the Houthis continue a series of assaults at sea over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and as the U.S. and its allies launch airstrikes trying to stop them.

Qatar is "hopeful" of a Gaza war ceasefire and is pushing for an agreement before Ramadan, its foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The gas-rich Gulf state, which hosts Hamas's political bureau, has been a key mediator in negotiations involving the Palestinian militants, Israel, the United States and Egypt.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he had arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks, including about prisoners of war, following previous Saudi mediation in POW swaps with Russia.

"The kingdom's leadership has already contributed to the release of our people. I am confident this meeting will also yield results," Zelensky said on X, formerly Twitter.

U.S. President Joe Biden signaled that a cease-fire in Gaza could be at hand, saying that Israel has agreed to pause its offensive during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some hostages held by Hamas.

But both Israel and Hamas downplayed on Tuesday the idea that a breakthrough was imminent.

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in an overnight raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday.

It was the latest in a surge of violence in the restive Palestinian territory since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip on October 7.

The Palestinian Authority's prime minister announced his government's resignation on Monday, seen as the first step in a reform process urged by the United States as part of its latest ambitious plans to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But it will do little to address the authority's longstanding lack of legitimacy among its own people or its strained relations with Israel. Both pose major obstacles to U.S. plans calling for the PA, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.

Israel would be willing to pause its war on Hamas in Gaza during the upcoming Muslim fasting month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some of the hostages held by the militants, President Joe Biden said in comments released on Tuesday.

There was no immediate Israeli reaction to Biden's comments on an emerging framework deal, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, under which Hamas would free some of the dozens of hostages it holds, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a six-week halt in fighting. During the temporary pause, negotiations would continue over the release of the remaining hostages and additional Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

So many sanctions. Once again, the United States, United Kingdom and European Union are hitting Russia with a new wave of sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. This time, they come in response to the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony last week.

With Friday's latest round of sanctions — landing one day before the second anniversary of the war — the U.S. has targeted more than 4,000 officials, oligarchs, firms, banks and others. The EU has targeted more than 2,000 people and entities, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates.