Qatar's suspension of its crucial mediation between Israel and Hamas has crushed hopes for a long-stalled truce in the Gaza war and hostage release deal.

The wealthy Gulf country hosts the largest U.S. base in the Middle East and Hamas's political office, and has played a pivotal role in indirect talks since the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

Syrian state media on Monday reported an Israeli strike on a village near the city of Homs, a day after a deadly strike on a building in the Damascus area.

"An Israeli aggression" targeted the "surroundings of the Shinshar region south of Homs", state news agency SANA said, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike targeted a Hezbollah munitions warehouse.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Monday said there had been "certain progress" on a ceasefire in Lebanon after the Israeli army launched an operation in the country targeting Hezbollah.

"There is certain progress," Saar said in response to a question about a possible ceasefire. "We are working with the Americans on the issue," he told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel struck an apartment belonging to Hezbollah in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups south of Damascus on Sunday, killing nine people including a commander, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the dead was a Lebanese commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Syria.

At least 41 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Sunday, including 23 in a raid north of the capital Beirut, the health ministry said.

Israel has intensified its air campaign in recent days, especially in the country's south and the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in a first public disclosure, that he had okayed a September attack on Hezbollah in which hundreds of communication devices exploded across Lebanon.

"Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon," his spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP of the attacks that killed nearly 40 people and wounded nearly 3,000, and preceded Israel’s ongoing military operation in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said on Monday that the Israeli military has been unable to occupy even a single village in Lebanon since launching cross-border ground operations in September.

Taiwan investigators said Monday there was no evidence that Taiwanese individuals or firms were involved in a deadly September attack targeting Hezbollah communications devices which exploded in Lebanon.

"Our investigation has verified that no nationals or domestic companies were involved in Lebanon's high-profile pager detonation incidents," Taiwan prosecutors said in a statement.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility for four drone attacks on Monday targeting "vital targets" in Israel.

The Kremlin on Monday denied a U.S. media report that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. president-elect Donald Trump shared a call about the Ukraine conflict.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump had urged the Russian leader not to escalate the war in Ukraine.