Israeli police said a Palestinian stabbed and wounded two people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem before being shot Wednesday.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said the two people who were stabbed were in “mild to moderate condition.” Israeli police said the two people who were stabbed were members of the security forces, without elaborating. An Associated Press reporter saw the body of the attacker.

A Jordanian citizen has died after being shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said Tuesday, with the military accusing the man of aiding a militant.

Tawfiq Aed Fawaz Hussein, 25, was shot at Zeita junction north of the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Monday, the Palestinian foreign ministry said.

The Israeli military said Tuesday a soldier believed to be held captive in Gaza had been killed in the October 7 attack and his body taken to the Palestinian territory.

Sergeant Itay Hen, 19, "fell on October 7 and was then kidnapped" to the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants, the military said in a statement.

Swiss federal prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of the war-battered country's current president, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago.

The attorney general's office said Assad, 86, is accused of directing the crimes in Syria in February 1982 while serving as commander of defense brigades that carried out an attack in the city of Hama during a conflict between the military and the Islamist opposition. Security forces killed thousands to crush a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city that year.

Since the Gaza war broke out in October, Egypt has faced a difficult dilemma, seeking both to show solidarity with the Palestinians and to preserve its relations with neighboring Israel.

The Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza is in theory the besieged territory's only opening to the world that is not under direct Israeli control.

Israel and Hamas are not close to a deal on a cessation of hostilities in Gaza and releasing hostages, mediator Qatar said on Tuesday.

"We are not near a deal, meaning that we are not seeing both sides converging on language that can resolve the current disagreement over the implementation of a deal," foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a news conference, adding that talks between the parties continued.

An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail for Gaza on Tuesday in a pilot program for the opening of a sea corridor to the territory, where the five-month-old Israel-Hamas war has driven hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of starvation.

The food was gathered by World Food Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, and is being carried on a barge attached to a ship belonging to the Spanish aid group Open Arms. It is expected to arrive at an undisclosed location on the Gaza coastline in two to three days. Andrés and the Open Arms boat captain, Oscar Camps, confirmed the food was destined for northern Gaza.

A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment to build a temporary pier in Gaza was heading to the Mediterranean on Sunday, after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to increase aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are going hungry.

The new push for aid came as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was set to begin Monday in much of the world after officials in Saudi Arabia saw the crescent moon. Hopes for a new cease-fire by Ramadan faded days ago with negotiations apparently stalled.

U.S. President Joe Biden has stepped up public pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, warning he's "hurting Israel" and speaking candidly about "come to Jesus" conversations with the leader over the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Despite Biden's increased displays of frustration, Israeli officials and Middle East analysts say no signs are emerging that Biden can push Israel, at least in the short term, to fundamentally alter how it's prosecuting the conflict that is entering a new dangerous phase.

The leader of Yemen's branch of al-Qaida is dead, the militant group announced late Sunday, without giving details.

Khalid al-Batarfi had a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S. government over leading the group, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, through years that saw him imprisoned, freed in a jailbreak, and governing forces in Yemen amid that country's grinding war.