U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Qatar's prime minister Friday ahead of a visit to Israel this weekend, showing how the Trump administration is trying to balance relations between key Middle East allies days after Israel targeted Hamas leaders in a strike on Doha.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that Damascus is negotiating with Israel to reach a security agreement that would see Israel leave areas it occupied after the December overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

As Islamist-led forces toppled Assad on December 8, Israel deployed troops to the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights which has separated Israeli and Syrian forces since an armistice that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The Israeli military said Saturday that more than 250,000 people have fled Gaza City for other parts of the territory over the past few weeks, since it intensified its assault on Gaza's largest urban center.

"According to IDF (military) estimates, more than a quarter of a million residents of Gaza City have moved out of the city for their own safety," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee said on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez of levelling a "genocidal threat" against Israel, drawing an outraged response from Madrid on Friday.

Two people were wounded in a stabbing attack at a hotel in Tzuba, an Israeli kibbutz less than 10 kilometers west of Jerusalem, medics said, with police reporting that the Palestinian assailant had been arrested.

"EMT (emergency medical technician) and paramedics are treating two stabbing victims and evacuating them to hospital, including a 60-year-old male in serious condition and a 23-year-old male in moderate condition," according to a statement by Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Friday with Qatar's prime minister after an Israeli strike on Hamas in the U.S. partner, the State Department said.

Rubio, who is also President Donald Trump's national security advisor, will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the White House, a State Department schedule said.

The United Arab Emirates said it summoned Israel's deputy ambassador in Abu Dhabi on Friday, in a formal rebuke of his country's attack targeting Hamas leaders in Gulf neighbour Qatar.

"Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, summoned the Israeli Deputy Head of Mission in the United Arab Emirates, David Ohad Horsandi, to strongly condemn and denounce the blatant and cowardly Israeli attack that targeted the State of Qatar, as well as the hostile statements made by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani has assured the U.N. Security Council that his country would continue its "diplomatic" role in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza.

"We will continue our humanitarian and diplomatic role without any hesitation, in order to stop the bloodshed," he told the U.N. body on Thursday, after earlier suggesting a reassessment of his country's mediation efforts following the Israeli strikes in Doha.

As Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for its invasion of Gaza City, a growing number of soldiers — and their mothers — are saying no.

There are no official figures, but newly formed groups are broadcasting their refusal to serve despite the risk of imprisonment. It's a new phenomenon in the nearly two-year war sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, though so far it has had no apparent effect on military operations.

Italy has told Israel to respect the rights of Italians taking part in an activist flotilla that is seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, after the latest boat was attacked with incendiary devices in Tunisian waters.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told parliament on Thursday that Italy would be monitoring the flotilla and providing consular and diplomatic assistance to the 58 Italians taking part, including some lawmakers.