Israeli strikes hit Beirut, Lebanon looks over truce plan

Israel have launched a wave of air strikes on Beirut and south Lebanon, a day after Lebanese government officials said they were studying a US truce.

Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are all backed by Israel's arch-enemy Iran, which said it backed a swift end to the nearly two-month war in Lebanon.

Since 23 September, Israel has escalated its bombing of targets in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops after almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Hezbollah militants over the Gaza war.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said "the enemy" carried out three air raids in the morning, later reporting another attack in the neighbourhood of Chiyah.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted "a weapons storage facility" and a Hezbollah "command centre" in south Beirut.

NNA also reported a strike on the southern city of Tyre, in a neighbourhood near UNESCO-listed ancient ruins.

Elsewhere in south Lebanon, the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal.

Hezbollah claimed several rocket attacks on northern Israel, targeting military sites including a naval base in the Haifa area.

Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,440 people have been killed since October last year, when Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire.

Israeli strike kills 10 at school housing displaced families in Gaza City

An Israeli strike killed 10 Palestinians and wounded at least 20 others at a school in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp currently sheltering displaced families, medics said.

The UN-run Abu Assi school, where rescue operations are ongoing, may still have people trapped under the rubble, health officials said. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.

The Israeli military reported that two rockets fired at Israel from northern Gaza were intercepted.

The launches show the ability of Palestinian militant groups to fire rockets into Israel despite

more than 13 months of an aerial and ground offensive that turned vast land in the enclave into wasteland and displaced most of the 2.3 million population.

Palestinian health officials said at least 30 people have been killed by Israeli military strikes across the enclave.

The Israeli military said its forces continued "operational activity" in the northern areas of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, the targets of an intense offensive since early October.

Troops also operated in the southern district of Rafah, the army said.

Israel says its renewed operations in the ravaged north were meant to stop Hamas militants from regrouping.

A UN-backed assessment at the weekend warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza, and UN figures showed the Israeli operation had forced at least 100,000 people to flee.

Israel has pushed back against a Human Rights Watch report this week that said its displacement of Gazans amounts to a "crime against humanity", as well as findings from a UN Special Committee that pointed to warfare practices that "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide".

Read more about the conflict in the Middle East

A foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the HRW report as "completely false", while the United States - Israel's main military backer - said accusations of genocide "are certainly unfounded".

The Gaza health ministry said at least 35 people were killed in the territory in the previous 24 hours, taking the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war to 43,799.

The majority of the dead were civilians, according to ministry figures which the United Nations considers reliable.

Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The civil defence agency reported 11 people killed in strikes across Gaza early on Saturday.

In Rafah, Jamil al-Masry said a house was hit, causing "a massive explosion".

Iranian support

In a rare claim of responsibility for a strike on Syria, Israel said it targeted the Islamic Jihad group.

A source from the group told AFP that Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad's political bureau, and the group's foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.

Islamic Jihad still holds several Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 attack on southern Israel. Earlier this week, the group released two video clips of Sasha Trupanov, a 29-year-old Russian-Israeli hostage.

As diplomacy aimed at ending the Gaza war has stalled, a top government official in Beirut said that US ambassador Lisa Johnson had presented a 13-point proposal to halt the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

It includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon will deploy troops to the border. The official added that Israel has yet to respond to the plan.

A second Lebanese official, similarly requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said he was "optimistic" about the talks.

A senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Lebanese officials in Beirut, saying Iran was "looking for solutions".

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 43,799

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 43,799 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The toll includes 35 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 103,601 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

Hamas's 7 October attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally of Israeli official figures.

Vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in north Gaza, Israel in October this year began a major air and ground assault there.

The Israeli army said earlier that its troops continued "their operational activity" in the northern areas of Jabalia and Beit Lahia.

The military said "over the past day, the troops continued to operate in the Rafah area, eliminating numerous terrorists, dismantling terrorist infrastructure sites, and locating a large amount of weapons in the area" in the territory's south.