The Latest | Israeli drone strike kills a prominent Syrian businessman with close ties to Assad

An Israeli drone strike on a car Monday near the Lebanon-Syria border killed a prominent Syrian businessman who was sanctioned by the United States and had close ties to the government of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, according to pro-government media and an official from an Iran-backed group.

For years, Israel has launched frequent strikes on targets in Syria linked to Iran, its powerful regional backer, but rarely acknowledges them. The strikes have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Hamas said Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks were ongoing and the group’s military commander was in good health, a day after the Israeli military targeted Mohammed Deif with a massive airstrike that local health officials said killed at least 90 people, including children.

Deif’s condition was still unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night “there still isn’t absolute certainty” he was killed, and Hamas representatives gave no evidence to back up their assertion about the health of a chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war with militants storming into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting about 250.

Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,400 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza. Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have limited humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.

Currently:

— Israel targeted Hamas’ military leader in Gaza. Who is he and what does it mean for the war?

— Hamas says Gaza cease-fire talks haven’t paused and claims military chief survived Israeli strike

— A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels strikes a ship in the Red Sea

— German authorities arrest a Lebanese man accused of procuring drone components for Hezbollah

— UK Foreign Secretary visits Israel and West Bank and calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza

Here’s the latest:

Israeli drone strike kills a prominent Syrian businessman with ties to Assad government, media and officials say

BEIRUT — An Israeli drone strike on a car Monday near the Lebanon-Syria border killed a prominent Syrian businessman who had been sanctioned by the United States and was close to the government of Syria's President Bashar Assad, pro-government media and other allied officials said.

Mohammed Baraa Katerji was killed instantly in his SUV on the highway linking Lebanon with Syria, according to an official from an Iran-backed group. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The pro-Syrian government newspaper Al-Watan quoted unnamed sources as saying Katerji was killed in a “Zionist drone strike on his car,” referring to Israel. It gave no further details.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, told The Associated Press by phone that he had no independent confirmation that Katerji was killed. He said it appeared Katerji may have been targeted because he had funded the Syrian resistance against Israel in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, as well as because of his links to Iran-backed groups in Syria.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Katerji in 2018 for allegedly working as Assad’s middleman to trade oil with with the Islamic State group and for facilitating weapons shipments from Iraq to Syria.

Katerji and his brother Hussam — widely referred to in Syria as the “Katerji brothers” — got involved in the oil business a few years after the country’s conflict began in March 2011.

For years, Israel has launched frequent strikes in Syria on targets linked to Iran, its powerful regional backer, but rarely acknowledges them. The strikes have escalated in recent months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.

___

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.

Israeli airstrike kills 3, including a baby and his grandmother, in central Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A baby boy and his grandmother were killed by an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building Monday in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, hospital officials said. A man in the street was also killed and at least six people were wounded.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on X , formerly Twitter, that 11 wounded people were taken to the hospital after the strike in the al-Salam neighborhood in western Deir al-Balah.

Associated Press footage showed a Red Crescent ambulance blaring its horn as it rushed the wounded up to the crowded entrance of Al Aqsa hospital. A man sat upright in a stretcher, blood running down his dust-covered face. Another man lay on his side, his skin peeled and burnt, but managed to point his index finger to the sky — a gesture used by Muslims to profess their faith in God. A wounded boy grimaced as he was carried inside.

At the hospital, the dead infant wearing only a diaper was placed on top of his grandmother's corpse, wrapped in a purple household blanket. Beside them lay another dead man, his head and torso obscured by a bloodstained white sheet.

Later, in the hospital courtyard, several dozen men performed funeral prayers in front of the grandmother and baby. As the mourners folded their arms across their chests, at least one man struggled to contain his emotions while wiping tears from his eyes.

Over the past 24 hours, at least 80 people were killed and 216 injured across the Gaza Strip and taken to hospitals, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. A total of 38,664 Palestinians have been killed and 89,097 were injured in the war since the war began in October, according to Gaza health officials. Gaza's Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels strikes a ship in the Red Sea

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels Monday targeted a ship in the Red Sea as a new American aircraft carrier approaches the region after the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower began heading home.

The captain reported that one uncrewed small craft hit twice and two other crewed vessels fired at the ship, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said, and that was followed by two separate waves of missile attacks, approximately 45 minutes apart, that exploded in close proximity to the vessel off the coast of Al Hudaydah, Yemen. The ship, whose name and flag were not released, and all crew are reported safe, the UKMTO said in a warning to mariners.

The Houthis did not immediately comment. However, it can take hours or even days before they acknowledge carrying out an attack.

The rebels have targeted more than 70 vessels by firing missiles and drones in their campaign that has killed four sailors. They seized one vessel and sank two since November.

The Houthis maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain as part of the rebels’ support for Hamas in its war against Israel. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war — including some bound for Iran, which backs the Houthis.