The visits came a day after Sharaa — also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, the highest-level visit from Lebanon to Syria to date. Arab states had responded cautiously to Assad’s fall and the takeover by HTS-led Islamist rebels.

Syria’s rebel factions have agreed to disband and become part of the interim government’s defence ministry as the new administration rushes to consolidate power within revamped government institutions.

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa reached an agreement on Tuesday with former rebel faction chiefs to dissolve all groups and consolidate them under the defence ministry, according to a statement from the new administration.

Palestinian medics say Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people. One of the strikes overnight and into Monday hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone,

Israeli soldiers stormed and burned a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcibly removing staff and patients on Friday, Health Ministry officials said. The Israeli military said the hospital was being used by Hamas fighters as a base,

Staff at a hospital in northern Gaza say the building has been surrounded by Israeli forces and they are being ordered to evacuate along with all patients, after reports of a nearby airstrike that the local health ministry said killed about 50 people.