A Palestinian official reported shooting and explosions in the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin on Wednesday as Israeli forces pressed a raid that the military described as a "counterterrorism" operation.

"The situation is very difficult," Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, told AFP.

As insurgents raced across Syria in a surprise offensive launched in the country's northwest late last year, officials from several countries backing either the rebels or Syria's government met in Qatar on what to do.

According to people briefed on the Dec. 7 meeting, officials from Turkey, Russia, Iran and a handful of Arab countries agreed that the insurgents would stop their advance in Homs, the last major city north of Damascus, and that internationally mediated talks would take place with Syrian leader Bashar Assad on a political transition.

Palestinians in Gaza are confronting an apocalyptic landscape of devastation after a ceasefire paused more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Across the tiny coastal enclave, where built-up refugee camps are interspersed between cities, drone footage captured by The Associated Press shows mounds of rubble stretching as far as the eye can see — remnants of the longest and deadliest war between Israel and Hamas in their blood-ridden history.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to resign on Monday after the country's military chief quit over the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

The head of Israel's military, Major General Herzi Halevi, resigned on Tuesday over his responsibility for the army's "failure" during the Palestinian militant group Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023.

In his resignation letter, released by the army, Halevi said he was leaving "due to my acknowledgement of responsibility for the (military's) failure on October 7."

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had launched an operation in the occupied West Bank's Jenin that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said aimed to "eradicate terrorism" in the area.

The Palestinian health ministry, based in Ramallah, said the operation had killed six people, just days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in the Gaza Strip.

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa congratulated U.S. President Donald Trump on his Monday inauguration, saying the American would "bring peace to the Middle East".

The Israel-Hamas ceasefire entered a third day Tuesday, while U.S. President Donald Trump said he doubted the fragile deal would hold.

Desperately needed humanitarian aid has begun to flow into war-battered Gaza after Israel and Hamas conducted the first exchange of hostages for prisoners agreed under the terms of the ceasefire.

The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's lifting of sanctions on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank would incite violence against Palestinians.

The Israeli military says a soldier was killed and another was seriously wounded in the West Bank.

The military declined to provide further details. Israeli media reported Monday that the soldiers’ vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern West Bank overnight.