President Donald Trump opted to engage in diplomatic talks with Iran on a nuclear deal rather than go ahead with Israeli proposed strikes on the nation. Officials with the Trump administration who spoke with The New York Times indicated that while Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was interested in attacking Iran, Trump told him during their White House meeting that he would instead begin talks.

As his enemies closed in on Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, who ruled over Syria with an iron fist for 24 years, used a private jet to spirit away cash, valuables and confidential documents mapping the corporate web behind his wealth.

Yasar Ibrahim, the president's top economic adviser, arranged the leasing of the plane to transport Assad's treasured assets, relatives, aides and presidential palace personnel to the United Arab Emirates aboard four flights, according to an account of the operation pieced together by Reuters from more than a dozen sources.

A predawn Israeli strike on al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, the last major hospital providing critical healthcare in northern Gaza, has sparked condemnation in Palestine and across the world as Israel continues to attack healthcare facilities.

Israel on Sunday claimed it struck a Hamas command and control centre at the hospital, without providing evidence, while Hamas denied the allegations.

A hospital in Gaza was intentionally hit by the Israeli military on Palm Sunday prompting widespread condemnations from Christian groups in the Middle East.

The Israeli Defense Forces claimed in a statement Sunday that it had dismantled an alleged Hamas "command and control center" operating inside the al-Ahli Hospital.

Claiming it held a "command and control center used by Hamas," Israel chose Palm Sunday to bomb the only Christian hospital in war-shattered Gaza. It was also the last fully-functioning hospital in Gaza City. No casualties from the bombing per se were reported by Gaza's civil emergency service. However, a child who'd been hospitalized for a head wound died from "the rushed evacuation process," said the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs the al Ahli Arab Hospital. The diocese is part of the Anglican Church. 

The funeral of 14-year-old Palestinian-American Amir Mohammed Rabee was held Monday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one day after the dual national from New Jersey was shot and killed there. Two other teenage boys, one whose family told CBS News he is also a U.S. citizen, were shot but survived.

Rabee's father told CBS News on Monday that his son's siblings live in the U.S., but that Amir and his parents were living in Turmus Ayya, in the central West Bank, where the teenager was attending school.

A Palestinian teenager with U.S. citizenship was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, with the Israeli military saying it shot a "terrorist" who endangered civilians by hurling rocks.

The incident is the latest in a surge of violence and near-daily confrontations in the volatile West Bank, where settler violence and clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians have kept it on edge.

An American teen who moved from New Jersey to the West Bank was shot and killed by Israeli troops who said they were targeting “terrorists” throwing rocks at cars.

Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee, a 14-year-old US citizen whose family moved from Saddle Brook when he was in elementary school, was shot along with two other teens in Turmus Ayya in the West Bank on Sunday, the Bergen Record reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops opened fire on “three terrorists who were throwing rocks at a highway with civilian vehicles.”

President Trump announced Monday that his administration would convene direct talks with Iran later this week — saying that he hopes for “a deal” to avoid “the obvious” military alternative.

“We’re having direct talks with Iran,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.