Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet President Donald Trump in the United States on December 29, a spokeswoman for the premier's office told AFP on Tuesday.

It will be Netanyahu's fifth visit to meet Trump in the U.S. since the start of the year and comes after the prime minister said he expected the second phase of the US-sponsored ceasefire plan for Gaza to begin soon.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Pope Leo XIV in Italy on Tuesday as he prepared to send the United States revised proposals to end Russia's invasion.

Zelensky on Monday held talks with European leaders in London and Brussels as U.S. President Donald Trump keeps up pressure on Kyiv for a settlement.

Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday that Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed this year worldwide, with 29 Palestinian reporters slain by its forces in Gaza.

In its annual report, the Paris-based media freedom group said the total number of journalists killed reached 67 globally this year, up from 66 killed in 2024.

Israel's military said it carried out strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday, targeting a training compound and other sites operated by Hezbollah.

"A short while ago, the IDF (Israeli military) struck infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in several areas in southern Lebanon," it said in a statement.

Celebrations erupted on the pitch and in the stands in Doha on Sunday when both Palestine and Syria made it through to the Arab Cup quarter-finals following a 0-0 draw.

For both sides, reaching the knockout stage in the regional tournament hosted by Qatar was magnified by the all-too recent memory of conflict in their homelands.

The United States, Israel and Qatar held a trilateral meeting in New York Sunday, a senior White House official told AFP, months after Israeli jets conducted an airstrike in Doha, unsuccessfully targeting Hamas leadership.

The White House official confirmed that the meeting had taken place but did not provide any further details.

The United Nations on Monday hit out at global "apathy" over widespread suffering as it launched its 2026 appeal for humanitarian assistance, which is limited in scope as aid operations confront major funding cuts.

"This is a time of brutality, impunity and indifference," U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told reporters as he unveiled a "prioritized" plan to raise at least $23 billion to help 87 million people in the world's most dangerous places such as Gaza and Ukraine.

As city after city fell to a lightning rebel offensive in Syria last December, Iranian forces and diplomats supporting Bashar al-Assad saw the writing on the wall, abandoning the longtime ruler days before his ousting, sources told AFP.

During Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 following the government's brutal repression of pro-democracy protests, Iran was one of Damascus' biggest backers, sending Assad military advisers and forces from its Revolutionary Guards.

A United Nations Security Council delegation has urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.

Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilization force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement.