The Israeli army said Tuesday that Israel's northern frontier would be "reinforced with advanced fire capabilities, intelligence collection systems and special units."

The announcement comes a day after a flare-up on the border with Lebanon and several days after the Israeli military announced it was beefing up the northern border with infantry troops amid tensions with Hizbullah.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday blamed Hizbullah and its local allies led by President Michel Aoun for the rapidly deteriorating economy and worsening relations with neighboring Arab countries, saying the only solution is for them to leave power.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Geagea said that Monday's military flare-up along the border with Israel was a clear indication the current Lebanese government, which Hizbullah supports, doesn't have sovereignty in the south, along Israel's border, where thousands of U.N. peacekeepers are based.

German authorities on Tuesday arrested a woman accused of traveling to Syria with her four young children to join the Islamic State group, as well as her brother-in-law, who is accused of helping her.

The federal prosecutor's office identified the pair only as Fadia S. and Rabih O., in line with German privacy rules. It said both are dual citizens of Germany and Lebanon, and they were arrested in Essen and Hildesheim respectively.

Israel's army said Monday it had thwarted an attempt to infiltrate its territory by a "Hizbullah cell" that crossed the Lebanese border and exchanged fire with Israeli forces.

"We were able to successfully thwart an attempt to infiltrate into Israel by a terrorist cell," army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters, adding that there were no reported casualties among Israeli troops.

The price of gold surged to a record above $1,926 per ounce on Monday as investors moved money into an asset seen as a safe haven amid jitters about U.S.-Chinese tension and the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

A bomb that exploded Sunday morning in a vegetable market in a north Syrian border town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed eight and wounding 19, an opposition war monitor and the state news agency reported.

The blast scorched market stalls and scattered produce in the town of Ras al-Ayn along the border with Turkey.

The top U.S. general made an unannounced visit to Israel on Friday to discuss "regional security challenges" at a time of heightened tensions with Iran and its allies across the Middle East.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chairman, met with senior Israeli military and intelligence leaders at an air base in southern Israel and held a video conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iranian officials on Friday slammed the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by a U.S. fighter jet in the skies over Syria as "illegal," threatening action against Washington over the incident.

Iran had said that one of its airliners, flying from Tehran to Beirut on Thursday, was "harassed" by fighter jets, but later landed safely in Lebanon. A U.S. official confirmed a U.S. jet had passed by the Iranian airliner, but at a "safe" distance.

Every chapter of Iraq's modern history can be seen in the sprawling cemetery of Wadi al-Salam outside the holy city of Najaf. Its sandy expanse is growing, this time with coronavirus victims.

A special burial ground near the cemetery has been created specifically for COVID-19 victims because such burials have been rejected by Baghdad cemeteries and elsewhere in Iraq.

China ordered the United States on Friday to close its consulate in the western city of Chengdu, ratcheting up a diplomatic conflict at a time when relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades.

The move was a response to the Trump administration's order this week for Beijing to close its consulate in Houston after Washington accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas.