Israel and Hezbollah have reportedly exchanged messages via intermediaries aimed at preventing further escalation after both sides traded heavy fire on Sunday.
The development comes hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned “this is not the end of the verse” after Israel launched “pre-emptive strikes” against Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said nearly all the targets it struck were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, said it fired drones and hundreds of rockets at Israel on Sunday morning in response to the killing of one of its top commanders in the Lebanese capital Beirut last month.
The group said it had hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv as part of the barrage.
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Lebanese group was planning to “harm Israeli civilians” and managed to launch “only about 230 rockets” and around 20 drones.
“Most of them either fell on their way to Israeli territory, landed in open areas, or were intercepted by Israeli air force defence systems and Israeli navy ships,” he said.
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Moment iron dome intercepts missiles
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group’s attack against Israel went “as planned” and dismissed IDF statements that its strikes had prevented a larger assault.
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He also said Hezbollah’s attack had been delayed to give Gaza ceasefire talks a chance, and so fellow Iran-backed groups could discuss with Iran whether to attack Israel all at once.
Mr Nasrallah said Hezbollah “will now reserve the right to respond at a later time if the results of Sunday’s attack aren’t sufficient”, adding that allied Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran had yet to respond.
He told the Lebanese people: “At this current stage, the country can take a breath and relax.”
Hezbollah and Israel said they aimed only at military targets during their attacks.
Israel said no military target was hit by Hezbollah but that one soldier with its navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire or by shrapnel from one.
Image: Smoke is seen on the Lebanese side of the border after Hezbollah and Israel traded blows. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from an allied group were killed in the Israeli strikes, the group said.
Speaking on Sunday afternoon, Mr Netanyahu said: “What happened today is not the end of the verse.
“Hezbollah tried to attack the State of Israel with rockets and drones early in the morning. We instructed the IDF to carry out a powerful pre-emptive strike to remove the threat.
“The IDF destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, and they were all intended to harm our citizens and our forces in the Galilee.
“In addition, the IDF intercepted all the UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] that Hezbollah launched for a strategic purpose in the centre of the country.
“We are hitting Hezbollah with surprising thrusts.”
His comments came before Reuters reported that both sides had exchanged messages in an effort to prevent further escalation at Israel’s border with Lebanon.
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Israeli navy soldier killed
One diplomat told the news agency that the overarching message was that both sides considered the overnight exchange of fire “done” and neither wanted a full-scale war.
World leaders have feared the 10-month Israel-Hamas war conflict spiral into a wider regional conflict between Israel and Iran or Iran-backed proxies.
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Hours after Hezbollah and Israel carried out their strikes, Hamas’s armed wing claimed it had fired a rocket at Tel Aviv.
The militant group says the attack was in response to Israeli “massacres against civilians”.
The latest violence comes after talks in Cairo aimed at negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ended with no agreement, Reuters reported, citing two Egyptian sources.
The sources reportedly said that neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to several compromises suggested by mediators.
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How did Israeli and Hezbollah attacks unfold?
Hamas said it has rejected new Israeli ceasefire conditions which it claims deviated from a US proposal which was put forward in July.
The militant group has now accused Israel of backtracking on a promise to withdraw its troops from a narrow stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
It added that Israeli officials had proposed other new conditions, such as screening displaced Palestinians on their return to northern Gaza.
“We will not accept discussions about retractions from what we agreed to on July 2 or new conditions,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told its Al Aqsa TV.
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People line up for food in Gaza
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
They claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs, and violates humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
In the meantime, scores of Palestinians in Gaza, like Islam Abu Taima, have resorted to searching through rubbish to find food.
Image: Palestinians are having to search through rubbish to find food
She found a small pile of cooked rice, scraps of bread, and a box with a few pieces of cheese inside it – which she said she will serve to her five children.
“We’re dying of hunger,” she told the Associated Press news agency.
“If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Image: Islam Abu Taeima finds a piece of bread in a pile of rubbish in Gaza City. Pic: AP.
It is unclear how many of the GHF’s aid trucks will enter Gaza.
It claims it will reach one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
There are questions, however, over who is funding it and how it will work.
Image: Trucks transporting aid for Palestinians in Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
It has been set up as part of an Israeli plan – rather than a UN distribution effort.
Israel, which suggested a similar plan earlier this year, has said it will not be involved in distributing the aid but supported the plan and would provide security.
It says aid deliveries into Gaza are taken by Hamas instead of going to civilians.
Aid groups, however, say there is no evidence of this happening on a systemic basis.
Israel began to allow a limited amount of food into Gaza last week – after a blockade that prevented food, medicine, fuel and other goods from entering the Palestinian enclave.
A letter has been signed by hundreds of judges and lawyers calling on the UK government to impose trade sanctions on Israel.
It also calls for Israeli ministers to be sanctioned and the suspension of Israel from the UN over “serious breaches of international law”.
“Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or that, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide,” the letter says.
The Israeli government has repeatedly dismissed allegations of genocide in Gaza.
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At least 31 dead after school attack
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, following the deadly attacks by the militant group on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
The health ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters in Gaza.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
Image: King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
At least 20 people have been killed and dozens more injured after an Israeli airstrike targeting a school in Gaza, health authorities have said.
Reuters news agency reported the number of dead, citing medics, with the school in the Daraj neighbourhood having been used to shelter displaced people who had fled previous bombardments.
Medical and civil defence sources on the ground confirmed women and children were among the casualties, with several charred bodies arriving at al Shifa and al Ahli hospitals.
The scene inside the school has been described as horrific, with more victims feared trapped under the rubble.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.