The Israeli military said four soldiers were killed in southern Gaza and five others were wounded, with three of them in serious condition.

The deaths on Tuesday came nearly a year into the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The army did not describe the circumstances, but Israeli media reported that the soldiers were killed by a hidden bomb that exploded inside a building.

Israel’s military said they have intercepted two suspicious drones that approached Israel from Lebanon and Iraq on Wednesday morning, the day after pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.

The Israeli military said they intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon over the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of northern Israel. Another drone launched from Iraq was intercepted by Israeli air force fighter jets. There were no injuries or damage reported.

Yemen's Houthi rebels shot down two American MQ-9 Reaper drones in under a week, the United States military acknowledged Wednesday, further highlighting the regional spread of the Israel-Hamas war.

As the one-year anniversary of the war approaches, Houthis continue a campaign to target ships traveling through the Red Sea as U.S.-led airstrikes pound their positions in Yemen. That's imperiled a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion of trade pass through it, as well as crucial shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and Yemen.

The U.N. General Assembly will vote Wednesday on a Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel end its "unlawful presence" in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year, withdraw its military forces and evacuate all settlers.

The resolution is being put to a vote in the 193-member assembly as Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza approaches its first anniversary and as violence in the West Bank reaches new highs. The war was triggered by Hamas attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed heightened Middle East tensions with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, saying it is important to reduce them, the Pentagon announced.

The call between the defense chiefs came on the same day that hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded in an attack the Lebanese militant group blamed on Israel, but the Pentagon declined to say whether the explosions were discussed.

Fourteen people were wounded in Syria on Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah exploded, a Britain-based war monitor said, adding to a toll of at least eight dead and 2,750 wounded in Lebanon.

"Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that some of its members had been wounded in pager blasts in neighboring Syria, without specifying how many.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed on Wednesday to intensify Gaza peace talks in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at salvaging the negotiations.

Blinken's visit to Cairo came hours after a wave of deadly blasts targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon that further complicated the Gaza talks.

Qatar's foreign ministry said Tuesday efforts to forge a Gaza truce were "ongoing", after several rounds of talks aimed at ending the now 11-month war ended without a breakthrough.

Salvagers successfully towed a Greek-flagged oil tanker ablaze for weeks after attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels to a safe area without any oil spill, a European Union naval mission said.

The Sounion reached waters away from Yemen as the Houthis meanwhile claimed that they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, with video circulating online showing what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile strike and flaming wreckage strewn across the ground.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has accused Israel's military of striking schools, humanitarian workers and civilians in Gaza in a sign of growing American frustration with its close ally as the war approaches its first anniversary.

Israel has repeatedly said it targets Hamas militants, who often hide with civilians and use them as human shields, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza.