A close adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad has died after a car accident left her hospitalized for four days, the president's office said in a statement.

Israel said that "gaps" remained with Hamas on how to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release but that it will send a delegation for fresh talks with Qatari mediators next week.

The statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman came after a delegation led by the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, held a first round of talks with mediators in Doha on Friday.

Islamic State group jihadists killed eight people, including two civilians, in an ambush on pro-government militiamen in Syria's Badia desert, a war monitor reported Thursday.

Israel has approved a new payment of more than $140 million to the Palestinian Authority after announcing it had also unblocked some funds frozen because of the Gaza war, a finance ministry spokesperson told AFP on Thursday.

Blindfolded, beaten and sometimes bitten by dogs, Gazans released from Israeli prisons allege being tortured amid the Israel-Hamas war, which rights groups say has worsened conditions for detainees.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, former director of Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, is the latest to report mistreatment by Israel.

The Israeli military said Friday it was conducting counterterrorism activity that included an airstrike in the area of the West Bank city of Jenin. Palestinian authorities said five people were killed.

The military said Israeli soldiers had "encircled a building where terrorists have barricaded themselves in" and the soldiers were exchanging fire, while an airstrike had "struck several armed terrorists" in the area.

After months of deadlock in Gaza ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send a delegation for talks aimed at securing the release of hostages seized in Hamas's October 7 attack, which sparked the war.

A source familiar with the talks said an Israeli delegation led by spy chief David Barnea was travelling to Doha for discussions with the Qatari prime minister "aiming to bring the parties closer to a deal in Gaza".

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that the Palestinian death toll from nearly nine months of war has surged past 38,000.

The ministry said that in the last 24 hours, the bodies of 58 people had been brought to hospitals, bringing the overall death toll to 38,011.

An Israeli airstrike slammed into a residential building next to the main medical center in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, wounding at least seven people, hospital authorities and witnesses said Wednesday.

Nasser Hospital sits in the western part of the city, which is inside the Israeli-designated humanitarian "safe zone" where Palestinians have been told to go, according to maps provided by Israel's military. The latest Israeli evacuation order affected about 250,000 people earlier this week across wide swathes of Gaza, the United Nations estimated.

Israel's Cabinet was set to convene Thursday to discuss Hamas' latest response to a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire in Gaza, as diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the nine-month war stirred back to life after a weekslong hiatus.

The United States has rallied world support behind a plan that would see the release of all of the scores of hostages still held by the militant group in return for a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. But until now, neither side appears to have fully embraced it.