Explosions heard in northern Syria, several deaths reported (2024)

Click here for updates from day 241 of the war.

Here's what you need to know after day 240 of the war:

■ Explosions were reported in northwestern Syria near Aleppo, and Syrian sources reported 12 deaths in Israel-attributed strikes on IRGC-linked factories in the area.

■ Blinken spoke with Gallant and Gantz about the 'Israeli cease-fire proposal' and said that the 'onus' is on Hamas to accept the deal.

■ The IDF said a drone from Lebanon crashed into the northern Israeli city Naharyia and caused a fire to break out in the area.

■ U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was part of the invitation for PM Netanyahu to speak at Congress, said he expects backlash at the speech.

■ Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli urged the government not to accept the cease-fire deal while speaking at an Israel Day rally in New York.

■ Rocket sirens sounded in northern Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate phone calls Sunday with Israeli Defense Minster Yoav Gallant and war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz about a deal "to achieve a full and complete ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal that would secure the release of all hostages." According to a State Department press release, Blinken told Gantz that he "commended Israel for the proposal and emphasized that Hamas should take the deal without delay."

Blinken reiterated to Gallant that he "commended Israel's readiness to conclude a deal and affirmed that the onus is on Hamas to accept."

The opposition-affiliated Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that several explosions were heard in the northwest of the country and that a copper factory near the city of Aleppo is on fire. According to the organization, there are at least 12 fatalities, and the dead are reportedly affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Syrian state media reported that a number of people were killed in an Israeli-attributed air attack targeting sites in the vicinity of Syria's Aleppo, citing a military source.

Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli urged his government on Sunday not to accept the deal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden to end the war and bring home the hostages.

Speaking at a conference in Manhattan sponsored by the right-wing, settler-aligned news organization Besheva, he said: "No surrender, not to American pressure, not to anything."

"We don't have any other choice but to continue the war and annihilate Hamas, and there is no option to accept a ceasefire while Hamas is still in power," Chikli said.

When Chikli got up to speak, he was disrupted by a protester who had embedded herself in the crowd and began shouting: "Bring them home now" and "Shame."

Responding to the disruption, Chikli suggested that it was protesters like her, who were active in the campaign last year to undermine the government's judicial coup – who were responsible for the Hamas attack on Israel.

"I think these kinds of calls that we had in the past year are what invited our enemies and encouraged the wrong message," he said.

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WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who recently joined his three fellow Congressional leaders in inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, acknowledged the Israeli premier's visit will come with scrutiny.

"I think that there will be ample room to be able to assess what was done right, what may have been done wrong. I certainly criticized the Israeli air strike from earlier this week. It was a tragedy. It should not have happened. And we mourn for the loss of people," he told NBC's Meet the Press.

"It's my hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu, consistent with what has been done by the Israeli war cabinet, which is to unanimously adopt the Biden peace plan, will conduct himself in a manner consistent with that Israeli war cabinet," Jeffries continued.

"It's on Hamas, as far as I can tell, as President Biden indicated, to accept the peace plan so we can end this conflict and move towards a just and lasting peace," he added.

Here's what you need to know on day 240 of the war.

■ Two Lebanese shepherds were killed in an Israeli strike that hit their house in the town of Houla near the Lebanon-Israel border on Sunday, state media reported.

■ The IDF detected several aircraft crossing over from Lebanon into Israeli territory and fired missiles toward them.

■ Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Israel is working on forming an alternative to Hamas' rule in Gaza.

■ Israel's Fire and Rescue Authority operate in multiple locations in northern Israel where fires have broken out.

■ Local officials in the northern Israel town of Metula say a house suffered a direct hit from an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon.

■ Delegations from the U.S. and Israel ended a meeting in Cairo at which Egypt stuck to its position that Israel must withdraw from the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing for it to operate again, Egypt's al Qahera News TV reported on Sunday citing a senior source.

■ The Maldives government will ban Israelis from the Indian Ocean archipelago, as public anger in the predominantly Muslim nation rises over the war in Gaza.

■ The White House said Sunday that it expects Israel to abide by its three-phased cease-fire proposal should Hamas accept the deal, as far-right Israeli ministers threaten to unravel the government should Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to the deal.

■ The Israeli army said that the air force struck a Hezbollah military building in the village of Ayta ash Shab and infrastructure in the village of Tair Harfa, both in southern Lebanon.

■ A rocket fell in an open area in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, and caused a fire.