France24 :
The Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, has drawn in Tehran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East, repeatedly heightening fears of a broader regional conflagration.
In the latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese group on Sunday launched rockets and drones in retaliation for a top commander’s killing as Israel carried out air raids the military said thwarted a larger attack.
Israel swiftly revoked a state of emergency declared early on Sunday, and Hezbollah said its operation was “completed”.
Intense diplomacy has sought to head off a broader retaliation for the late July killings of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike on Beirut, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Mediators held meetings in the Egyptian capital on Sunday but reported no breakthrough in months of protracted negotiations to end the Gaza war as the fighting raged on.
A key sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it keep control of several strategic areas, including the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, to stop Hamas from re-arming, something the militant group has refused to countenance.
Cairo, which has been mediating the talks alongside Qatar and the United States, made clear on Monday it would not support continued Israeli control of the corridor, according to state-linked media.
Egypt “reiterated to all parties that it will not accept any Israeli presence” along the corridor, Al-Qahera news reported, citing a high-level source.
On the ground, witnesses and AFP correspondents reported air strikes and shelling in Gaza City and other parts of the besieged Palestinian territory overnight and Israel’s military said it had struck militants in the south.
Medics said an air strike on a Gaza City house killed at least five people, with two rescuers telling AFP more victims may be buried in the ruins in Al-Rimal neighbourhood.
An Israeli military statement said troops had “eliminated” dozens of militants over the past day in the southern areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah, and near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
‘Final word’
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,435 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces throughout the war, in what the group says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.
After weeks of retaliation threats, Hezbollah early on Sunday launched what it said was part of its response to Shukr’s killing.
Speaking hours after Hezbollah announced its attacks on Israel with hundreds of rockets and drones, the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah said the “main target” was an intelligence base outside Tel Aviv, more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Lebanese border.