The US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has condemned Australia’s decision to join 27 other countries in issuing a joint statement criticising Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces pushed into a central Gaza city on Monday for the first time since the war with Hamas began.

Israel carried out a series of airstrikes Wednesday on Syria’s Defense Ministry in Damascus, causing injuries in an escalating conflict with the new Syrian government, according to an Israeli military statement and Syrian state television.

Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the country’s Druse minority.

Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarized and to protect the Druze minority as deadly clashes continued in the region at the Israeli frontier.

Israel's visa application process for evangelicals faced bureaucratic hurdles until U.S. Ambassador Huckabee threatened reciprocal treatment for Israeli citizens seeking U.S. travel.

Israel has struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clash with Druze militias.

Israel warned it would move the first time into a town in the heart of the Gaza Strip that it had earlier skirted for fear of harming hostages, as it accused Hamas of stalling at US-brokered ceasefire talks and the war’s toll on Palestinian civilians spiraled.