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Syria’s de facto new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, denounced Israel’s land incursion and airstrikes that have pounded the country since his rebel group took power last week, but he said he was more interested in state-building than opening another conflict.

“Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region,” Sharaa, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said in an interview Saturday with Syria TV.

Sharaa, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani until a rebel coalition headed by his forces toppled President Bashar al-Assad’s regime last Sunday, called on the international community to support diplomatic solutions to Israel’s escalation.

Israeli officials have characterized the advance as a measure to prevent rebels or militias from using abandoned military equipment to attack Israel.

“Syria’s war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations. The priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability, not being drawn into disputes that could lead to further destruction,” Sharaa said.

Vying for international legitimacy, he sought to temper concerns that his group of Islamist rebels, which was once affiliated with al-Qaeda and remains on the U.S. State Department’s terrorist list, will not allow pluralism in Syria. He described the efforts to overthrow the brutal Assad family dynasty as being shared by all Syrians.

The rebel leader added that he wants to avoid provoking Russia, which over the past decade propped up the Assad regime and dropped hundreds of thousands of bombs over the country in doing so.

“The current stage requires careful management of international relations,” he said, in a marked shift from his previous direct criticism of Moscow for its airstrikes on the breakaway province of Idlib that HTS governed.

The United States, Turkey and other Middle Eastern and Western powers issued a statement Saturday setting out their hopes for Syria’s future as they adjust to the country’s new leaders. “The transitional political process must be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned” and “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government,” the countries said. They affirmed their “full support for Syria’s unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Turkey, which previously supported HTS, has emerged as the outside power with the strongest hand in steering the country’s political transition.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday night, and the two discussed the “need to complete Israel’s victory” and efforts to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Netanyahu said in a statement.

Calling Trump “my friend,” Netanyahu said the conversation was “very friendly, warm and important.”

In his video statement, Netanyahu also gave broader comments on the situation in Syria. He said he wanted to clarify that Israel has “no interest in confrontation” with Syria, saying “our policy towards Syria will be determined by the reality on the ground.”

He and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the Israel Defense Forces to “neutralize potential threats from Syria and to prevent terrorist elements” from establishing a foothold near Israeli borders, he said. Israel, within days, destroyed capabilities built by the regime of Bashar al-Assad over decades, he added.

Netanyahu issued a warning to Hezbollah and Iran: “To prevent you from harming us, we will continue to act against you whenever necessary, in any arena and at any time.”

He also convened the Israeli security cabinet on Sunday, according to the prime minister’s office.

“A year ago, I made a simple statement: We will change the Middle East, and we are indeed changing it,” Netanyahu said. “Syria is no longer the same Syria, Lebanon is no longer the same Lebanon, Gaza is no longer the same Gaza, and the head of the axis — Iran — is no longer the same Iran. They, too, have felt the weight of our strength.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Florida), Trump’s incoming national security adviser, was asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” if Trump planned to keep some 900 U.S. troops in Syria.

He said his “number one interest” is “keeping a lid on” the Islamic State.

“We cannot have an explosion of ISIS back into a caliphate that threatens Iraq, threatens Jordan, threatens Turkey and Europe, inspires attacks in the United States like we saw in 2014. President Trump cleaned it up then with his team,” Waltz said.

He said that they’re in “consultation with the Israelis,” who are “importantly taking down Assad’s chemical stockpiles as well as other things we don’t want falling into the hands of anybody.”

At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, the director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, Munir al-Bursh, said Sunday, as Israeli forces continue their two-month offensive in the area.

Local media reported that displaced families were sheltering in the Khalil Adwan school when Israeli troops targeted the building with gunfire and artillery.

In a statement Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said its troops conducted a “targeted raid” in the area, killing dozens of militants through a combination of “air and ground” strikes and detaining others. “Numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians,” it said.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, there were five Israeli attacks in the past day that collectively killed at least 46 people. At least 44,976 people have been killed in Gaza during the war and 106,759 injured, according to the the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militants.

In October, the IDF renewed its offensive in the northern border communities of Jabalya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. The IDF says it is attacking reemergent Hamas targets but has laid waste to much of the cities and ordered residents to evacuate.

In a statement Friday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said “thousands of Palestinians are facing apocalyptic conditions after almost 10 weeks under siege” in the enclave’s north, lacking the basic necessities of survival, including food, water, medicines and shelter supplies.

Iranian officials condemned Israeli military incursions into Syrian territory, calling on the Syrian people to rise up against the actions. Since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, Israeli ground forces have pushed into Syrian territory as its warplanes launched hundreds of airstrikes across the country.

The commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, said following the withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria: “The Zionists can now see into the houses of the people of Damascus with their naked eye.”

Salami called the situation in Syria “intolerable” and said “the youth of Syria will liberate the occupied territories, and the Zionists will fall,” according to a summary of his remarks published by Iranian state media.

Over the past week, the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes launched at Syrian territory destroyed advanced weapons and military equipment, including air defenses, according to Israel’s military. “The Zionists will pay a heavy price. They will be buried in the land of Syria, but this process will take time,” Salami said.

Salami also accused global and regional powers of attempting to “ignite conflicts in Syria” and behaving “like hungry wolves attacking a lone gazelle in the desert, each tearing apart a piece of its body.”

Assad’s fall leaves Iran exposed politically and militarily. Iran’s leadership is coming under considerable pressure at home, with even people supportive of the regime questioning why so much money was spent for so long to prop up Assad.

In his first remarks since Assad’s fall, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, acknowledged Wednesday that Assad’s fall was a blow to Iran’s regional policy of arming militias to form a forward line of defense. But he said Iran’s allies would recover.

“The more pressure you exert, the stronger the resistance becomes,” he said, referring to the allied militias. “Iran is strong and powerful — and will become even stronger.”

CAIRO — The scenes that emerged from Syria this week recalled some of the headiest days of the Arab Spring. Rebels had toppled a dictator, and people danced in the streets. At the same time, crowds of Syrians broke open regime prisons, freeing their loved ones and hundreds more political detainees.

The renewed revolutionary fervor, in a region still ruled by autocrats, has unsettled Arab leaders, many of whom had recently resumed ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The leaders — from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — are worried that Assad’s ouster could stir unrest at home, analysts, officials and diplomats say. They are also concerned that Syria could plunge into chaos and are watching warily as Islamist rebels, led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, gain power in Damascus.

This is an excerpt from a full story.

Mohammed Balousha “was a determined individual, dedicated to spreading the truth and reporting on the situation in Gaza,” George Eid, the head of news at Al Mashhad, wrote in an email to The Washington Post.

The Israel Defense Forces told The Post that it was not “aware of a strike in the area” at that time.

Hassan al Zaneen, a journalist, said Balousha lived in the Saftawi neighborhood north of Gaza City. Israeli forces have for several months encircled, bombarded and forcibly displaced people from that neighborhood and Gaza’s most northern border communities.

“Mohammad remained in his home to practice his profession as a journalist,” Zaneen said.

Balousha, he said, was hit by shrapnel and neighbors took him to a main street that an ambulance was able to access. He died at the Sheikh Radwan medical clinic, facility director Hussein Mohsen told The Post.

“Despite our repeated pleas for him to take a break, he refused to leave,” Eid said. “His courage and dedication were unmatched. He will be deeply missed, and journalism has lost yet another beacon of hope.”

Balousha continued to work after he was shot and badly injured in the leg last December. At the time, he told The Post that he believed an Israeli sniper at a nearby building shot him. He recorded a video of his ordeal; he said he spent six hours bleeding and trying to climb to his second-floor home. The IDF did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.

In November 2023, Balousha reported that four premature babies left behind at al-Nasr Children’s Hospital had died and their bodies had decomposed. Israeli forces had ordered health-care workers to evacuate or risk being bombarded, hospital staff said, and had not provided enough ambulances.

The Post interviewed Balousha about the discovery.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli agency that oversees the Palestinian territories, denied that it had forced staff to evacuate but declined to answer whether it or the Israeli military had been told about the babies or had taken action to care for them.