Israel's military said Tuesday that it had expanded its operations in Gaza, where residents reported fierce gunfire and shelling days ahead of a planned trip to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iraq's top court was set to resume work Monday after nine judges who had tendered their resignations in recent weeks returned to work following the retirement of the court's president and the appointment of a successor.
Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council announced Sunday the retirement of the head of the Federal Supreme Court, Judge Jassim Mohammed Abboud Al-Amiri, citing "health reasons." The Council nominated Judge Mundher Ibrahim Hussein, deputy president of the Federal Court of Cassation, to assume the position, and Hussein was appointed by presidential decree on Monday.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending many U.S. economic sanctions on Syria, following through on a promise he made to the country's new interim leader.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move was designed to "promote and support the country's path to stability and peace."

Iran has warned that it had little faith in Israel's commitment to a fragile ceasefire that ended the most intense and destructive confrontation between the two foes to date.

At least 935 people were killed in Iran during its 12-day war with Israel, Iranian state media reported Monday, nearly a week since a ceasefire took hold.

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed 34 people on Monday, including 11 waiting for aid, as momentum built behind a ceasefire push for the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged around a military base in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, setting fires, vandalizing military vehicles, spraying graffiti and attacking soldiers, the military said.
Sunday night's unrest came after several attacks in the West Bank carried out by Jewish settlers and anger at their arrests by security forces attempting to contain the violence over the past few days.

Israel said Monday it is "interested" in striking peace agreements with neighboring Lebanon and Syria, a potentially historic shift in the region after decades of war and animosity.
With Syria under new leadership after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement weakened, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told journalists his government wanted more normalization agreements with Arab countries.

It's been a week since the United States pressed Israel and Iran into a truce, ending a bloody, 12-day conflict that had set the Middle East and globe on edge.
The fragile peace, brokered by the U.S. the day after it dropped 30,000-pound "bunker-busting" bombs on three of Iran's key nuclear sites, is holding. But much remains unsettled.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday urged progress in ceasefire talks in the 20-month war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, though some weary Palestinians were skeptical about the chances. Israel issued a new mass evacuation order for parts of northern Gaza.
Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was set to travel to Washington this week for talks on a ceasefire, an Israeli official said, and plans were being made for Netanyahu to travel there in the coming weeks, a sign there may be movement on a deal.
