The European Union plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen that are hampering trade and driving up prices, the bloc's top diplomat said Wednesday.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he wants the mission to be up and running by Feb. 17. Officials say that seven EU countries are ready to provide ships or planes. Belgium has already committed to send a frigate. Germany is expected to do the same.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday its warplanes struck Syrian army infrastructure overnight in response to rocket fire from the country.

"Last night, a number of launches from Syria toward the southern Golan Heights were identified," the military said in a statement.

President Joe Biden has made it clear the U.S. will strike back after a deadly drone attack killed three service members and wounded more than 40 at a small base in Jordan over the weekend. What isn't yet clear is who will be hit, where, and how hard.

Biden has a wide array of options, but the U.S. must walk a fine line: A weak response will do little to deter further attacks by Iran-backed militia groups, while a major assault risks expanding the turmoil in the Middle East and drawing America into a wider conflict.

President Joe Biden has indicated he had decided how to respond after the killing of three American service members Sunday in a drone attack in Jordan that his administration has pinned on Iran-backed militia groups, saying he does not want to expand the war in the Middle East but demurring on specifics.

U.S. officials said they are still determining which of several Iran-backed groups was responsible for the first killing of American troops in a wave of attacks against U.S. forces in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel. Biden plans to attend the dignified transfer to mark the fallen troops' return to American soil on Friday and answered in the affirmative when asked by reporters if he'd decided on a response, as he indicated he was aiming to prevent further escalation.

The first United Arab Emirates ambassador to Damascus in nearly 13 years has taken up his post as Syria has been reintegrating into mainstream regional acceptance.

Syrian state media said Tuesday the country's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad received Ambassador Hassan Ahmad al-Shihi's credentials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected two key demands Hamas has made during indirect cease-fire talks, saying Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip or release thousands of jailed militants.

During an event Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu again vowed that the war would not end without Israel's "absolute victory" over Hamas.

Yemen's Houthi rebels fired "several" missiles at a U.S. warship in the Red Sea, they said on Wednesday, hours after the U.S. military reported shooting down a missile.

"The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces, with the help of God Almighty, fired several... naval missiles at the American destroyer USS Gravely in the Red Sea," the Huthi statement said.

U.S. and Mideast mediators appeared optimistic in recent days that they were closing in on a deal for a two-month cease-fire in Gaza and the release of over 100 hostages held by Hamas.

But on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the militant group's two main demands — that Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza and release thousands of Palestinian prisoners — indicating that the gap between the two sides remains wide.

Israel's army has begun flooding Hamas's network of tunnels as intense fighting rages in Gaza, with the U.N. warning of the potential "collapse of the humanitarian system" in the territory after a funding row hit its Palestinian aid agency.

The epicentre of the fighting in recent weeks has been Khan Younis, southern Gaza's main city, where vast areas have been reduced to a muddy wasteland of bombed-out buildings, and where an AFP journalist witnessed people leaving town on Tuesday as explosions sounded nearby.

Aid groups condemned on Tuesday a decision by several countries to suspend funding for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), pointing to a "worsening humanitarian catastrophe" and "looming famine" in Gaza.

A number of key donors to UNRWA -- including the United States, Germany and Japan -- have announced they are suspending funding to the agency over Israel's accusations that some of its staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack.