Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants began a ceasefire Wednesday in a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting as a region on edge wondered whether it will hold. The ceasefire calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border.

Israel’s military launched airstrikes across Lebanon on Monday, unleashing explosions throughout the country and killing at least 31 while Israeli leaders appeared to be closing in on a negotiated ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group.

The United Arab Emirates said Monday police arrested three Uzbek nationals for the killing of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in an attack that’s raised concerns for the burgeoning Israeli community in the country.

Israel and Hezbollah inched closer to signing a ceasefire deal that may be concluded in the coming days, according to officials and people familiar with the matter, even as the two sides continued to fire artillery and rockets at each other.

Human Rights Watch said it determined that munition remnants found at the site were consistent with a JDAM guidance kit assembled and sold by the U.S. company Boeing. The weapon is accurate to within several meters, the group said.

U.S. forces are fighting Iranian-backed proxies in Syria frequently as they come under militant attacks that analysts say have been aided by the Syrian government.

Israel said Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found after he was killed in what it described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.”

A growing number of Israeli reservists are choosing not to report for duty, putting further strain on an overextended military amid an ever-widening war.

Hezbollah fired at least 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in the militant group’s heaviest barrage in several days, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the all-out war.

Israeli airstrikes Saturday in central Beirut killed at least 20 people, officials said, as the once-rare attacks on the heart of Lebanon’s capital continued without warning while diplomats scrambled to broker a cease-fire.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu severely criticized the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants against him and a former minister, and said his government won’t be deterred from continuing its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip are often eating just once a day, even in areas where aid groups have relatively more access than the isolated and heavily destroyed north. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter the territory. But humanitarian groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order pose major obstacles to distribution.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the 13-month-old war between Israel and Hamas has surpassed 44,000, local health officials said Thursday.

The world’s top war-crimes court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the 13-month war in Gaza.

A Special Operations helicopter deployed in response to fighting in Gaza crashed during target practice, not aerial refueling, as the Pentagon said last year.

A U.N. memo concluded that gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from Israel’s military.

The last time Donald Trump was U.S. president it spelled disaster for Iran — he walked away from a landmark nuclear deal, derailed the country’s economy with sanctions and killed its most revered general. 

A close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Donald Trump and Jared Kushner this week that Israel is rushing to advance a cease-fire deal in Lebanon, according to three current and former Israeli officials briefed on the meeting, with the aim of delivering an early foreign policy win to the president-elect.

For the second time this week, U.S. forces in the Middle East retaliated against Iran-backed militants for attacks on American military personnel and facilities in Syria.