President Joe Biden hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday as the outgoing administration seeks cease-fire progress in Gaza and Lebanon.

Joe Biden offered a bizarre response to an Israeli journalist who asked him if he thought he could make a deal to free the hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas before he leaves office in January.

United Nations peacekeepers are warning that the Israeli military has committed “severe violations” of a cease-fire deal with Syria as its military continues a major construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.

The work, which UNDOF said began in July, follows the completion by the Israeli military of new roadways and what appears to be a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s frontier wit