At least 800,000 Syrians had been displaced by the recent fighting in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative for the country said today.

“There is a situation of huge humanitarian needs and there is a situation of huge forced displacement,” Vargas Llosa told the BBC's "Newsday," adding that the situation inside the country was already dire with 16 million people in “urgent need of humanitarian aid.”

Vargas Llosa said that the U.N. was trying to resume activities that had been suspended by the fighting.

“Every little space that becomes secure then we immediately move in with our partners to try to fill that humanitarian void,” he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said today that he had ordered the military to establish a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria as Israeli forces moved to seize control of the demilitarized and U.N.-patrolled buffer zone, established under a 1974 cease-fire agreement.

He said the zone would operate "without a permanent Israeli presence, in order to prevent the establishment and organization of terrorism in Syria."

Katz added that the Israeli navy had destroyed Syria’s military fleet in the Mediterranean last night.

Photos showed sunken Syrian naval ships in the port city of Latakia, with smoke billowing from the wreckage after they were laid to waste by Israeli airstrikes.

A number of European nations have paused asylum applications from Syria following the ousting of Assad, a decision that affects tens of thousands of open claims.

A minister from the U.K.'s home office told the BBC this morning that the nation was no longer able to judge applications when Syria "is in such turmoil," and when "the regime they fled from has disappeared."

Germany, which is home to nearly a million Syrians, said yesterday it would not process requests until there was more clarity in Syria. Other countries including Norway, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands also announced suspensions of Syrian requests, according to the Reuters news agency. France said it hoped to announce a similar decision shortly.

Mohamed al-Bashir has been named as the caretaker prime minister of Syria's transition government until March 1, 2025, he said in a televised statement today.

Al-Bashir has close ties to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group responsible for leading the overthrow of the Assad regime. He previously led the Salvation Government, affiliated with HTS, which governed parts of northwestern Syria and Idlib.

HTS is an internationally designated terror group, raising questions about its role in a future Syrian government.

While Syria celebrates overthrowing its longtime dictator, it is also being subjected to a new ground incursion and a wave of airstrikes from its neighbor Israel that drew growing international condemnation and concern Tuesday.

Explosions rocked Damascus overnight, smoke billowed from a research center north of the capital and destroyed naval ships sat in the western port of Latakia — all while Israeli ground forces moved into Syrian territory.Read the full story here.

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said this morning it found no undiscovered cells or secret tunnels in the notorious Saydnaya Prison, where many of Assad's political opponents were imprisoned after disappearing.

"Specialized teams searched all sections and facilities of the prison, including its basements, courtyards, and external buildings," it said. "No evidence was found to support the existence of secret or undiscovered tunnels," it added.

Five teams participated in the search, it said, including two teams of trained police dogs, medical teams which tracked various ventilation openings, sewers and wirings.

After the collapse of Assad's regime, many had rushed to the prison north of the capital Damascus to find their loved ones. The rebels have demanded information of secret prisons, saying informants will be generously rewarded and protected.

Israel has refuted reports that its tanks were moving towards the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Earlier today, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, said Israeli tanks were seen in the countryside to southwest of Syria’s capital, Damascus.

The city is nearly 30 miles away from a buffer zone in Golan Heights, which Israel has vowed to fully seize as a temporary but precautionary measure.

“The reports circulating in the media about the alleged advancement of Israeli tanks towards Damascus are false,” the IDF said in a statement, adding, “IDF troops are stationed within the buffer zone, as stated in the past.”

However, Israel’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly said the IDF will move beyond the buffer zone. He said last night that he had ordered the IDF to seize the buffer zone “as well as the controlling positions close to it.”

Men and children gather unexploded ammunition at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted shipments of weapons belonging to Syrian government forces in Qamishli, northeastern Syria this morning.

Benjamin Netanyahu can claim many firsts. The first Israeli prime minister born after the foundation of the state. The first to hold the office for more than 15 years. 

And today he sets another precedent: the first sitting prime minister to take the stand as a defendant in their own criminal trial. 

As Syria convulses in revolutionary chaos and Gaza’s humanitarian crisis deepens, Netanyahu is in a stuffy Tel Aviv courtroom testifying in a criminal corruption trial. He stands accused of accepting nearly $200,000 in lavish gifts from businessmen in exchange for political favors and of offering to skew regulations for media moguls in exchange for favorable press coverage.  

Netanyahu denies wrongdoing. There are no juries in Israel and the case is being heard in front a three-judge panel. The prime minister could face 10 years in prison if convicted. 

Outside the courthouse, small groups of pro- and anti-Netanyahu demonstrators are chanting from opposite sides of a police barrier. “Hurting the prime minister helps the enemy,” read one placard from a Netanyahu supporter.