French President Emmanuel Macron called once again for a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

Macron said the elimination of Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar last week in Gaza “must be an opportunity to begin a new phase of negotiation” for a cease-fire, the release of hostages and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said Monday that he held a "very constructive" meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh and that the U.S. is working with Lebanon and Israel on a "formula that brings an end to this conflict once and for all."

Hochstein added that U.N. resolution 1701 is “no longer enough” and that a new mechanism must be put in place to ensure it is implemented “fairly, accurately, transparently.”

Egyptian officials said the head of Israel’s internal security agency has visited Cairo to discuss reviving Gaza cease-fire talks after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Israel and Hamas, as well as Egypt, which has served as a key mediator, appear to still be divided over whether Israel would retain control over parts of Gaza, a dispute that dragged the talks to a halt in August.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit Monday, hours after a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital and as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushes Western partners to keep providing military support for the war.

Austin said on the X platform that his fourth visit shows "that the United States, alongside the international community, continues to stand by Ukraine."

The world's final glimpse of Hamas' leader was rough and raw, showing him wounded and cornered as he sat in a bombed-out Palestinian home and faced down the Israeli drone filming him, hurling a stick at it.

For Israel, the scene was one of victory, showing Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Oct. 7, broken and defeated.

The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel's plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.

The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran's blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the "Five Eyes," which are the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Lebanese were surveying the damage on Monday after overnight Israeli strikes hit nearly a dozen branches of a Hezbollah-run financial institution that Israel says is used to fund attacks but where many ordinary people keep their savings.

The strikes targeted Al-Qard Al-Hassan branches in the southern neighborhoods of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-story building with a branch inside it. Smoke was still rising from several locations on Monday and bulldozers were removing the debris.

On top of the grievous toll in human life and misery, Israel's war against Hamas and Hezbollah has been expensive, and the painfully high financial costs are raising concerns about the long-term effect of the fighting on the country's economy.

Military spending has ballooned, and growth has stalled, especially in dangerous border areas that were evacuated. Economists say the country could face declining investment and higher taxes as the war strains government budgets and forces tough choices between social programs and the military.

The Israeli military has apologized for a strike in southern Lebanon that killed three Lebanese soldiers.

The military said it struck a truck on Sunday that had entered an area where it had previously targeted a Hezbollah truck transporting a launcher and missiles.

The Lebanese Army said three soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday on their vehicle in southern Lebanon. There was no immediate comment on that from the Israeli military, which said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past day and continued ground operations there.