Israel said Monday it had terminated the agreement facilitating the work of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza.

It appeared to be the first step in implementing legislation passed last month that would sever ties with the agency, which Israel says has been infiltrated by Hamas, and prevent it from operating in Israel.

The Israeli military said it has carried out a ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced its troops operated in Syrian territory.

Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria multiple times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanon's Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. But it has not previously made public any ground forays into Syria.

An Israeli court has loosened a gag order on a case investigating leaks of classified information suspected to involve one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's media advisers. Critics say the leaks were aimed at giving Netanyahu political cover as Gaza cease-fire talks ground to a halt.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, downplaying the affair and publicly calling for the gag order to be lifted. Netanyahu has said the person in question "never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits."

A 25-strong Israeli naval force made a landing on Batroun's shore at dawn Friday and abducted Hezbollah official Imad Fadel Amhaz from a chalet, media reports and security sources said on Saturday.

"Israeli Navy SEALs captured last night Imad Amhaz -- a senior member of Hezbollah's naval force -- in an operation in Northern Lebanon," an Israeli official told U.S. news portal Axios.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief says the U.N. force in southern Lebanon is determined to stay, not only because of its mandate monitoring attacks by Israel and Hezbollah but because the departure of peacekeepers would likely mean U.N. facilities would be taken over by one of the warring parties.

“That would be very bad for many reasons, including the perception of impartiality and neutrality of the United Nations,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in a U.N. interview.

Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon's northeastern farming villages on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.

In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began Thursday, hospital officials said.

Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.

Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate Hezbollah, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.

Iran's supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with "a crushing response" over attacks on Iran and its allies.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.

Hospital officials in Gaza said on Friday that the death toll from Israeli strikes on the central parts of the territory the day before has risen from 16 to 25 as more bodies have been recovered.

The Palestinians killed in the series of strikes on central Gaza include five children and seven women, the officials said.

More than a year into a war that has ricocheted across the Middle East, Israeli troops are still battling Hamas in the most heavily destroyed and isolated part of the Gaza Strip.

In northern Gaza, Hamas militants carry out hit-and-run attacks from bombed-out buildings. Residents say Israeli forces have raided shelters for the displaced, forcing people out at gunpoint. First responders say they can barely operate because of the Israeli bombardment.