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Some 900 US troops remain deployed in Syria as part of a US-led coalition battling remnants of the Islamic State group.
AFP
The war in Gaza has now reached Day 131, with tensions still high across the Middle East. A U.S. military base in eastern Syria was attacked by missiles early Wednesday, the Iranian government’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.
Amid intensifying fire exchanges between Israeli forces and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the Israel-Lebanon border, the terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said the heavily armed militia is “committed” to fighting Israel until the country is “off the map.”
The militant group has since claimed attacks on eight military assets and sites belonging to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the last day.
In Cairo, where negotiators from the U.S., Israel, Qatar, and Egypt gathered to discuss a proposed ceasefire deal, talks ended inconclusively, raising fears for the fate of some 130 hostages still in Hamas captivity.
Following several days of continuing attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels, the Red Sea saw a 24-hour calm as the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said there were no maritime security alerts from Monday night through Tuesday night.
Back in the devastated Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains unshaken despite increasing calls for restraint in Rafah, an overcrowded city in southern Gaza that the IDF has its eyes on for a ground offensive.
Netanyahu’s resolute standpoint over the fighting draws from years of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict that ultimately boiled over on Oct. 7, when Hamas operatives raided Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and dragging some 240 hostages into Gaza.