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The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired on Sunday (Monday AEDT), with some intercepted.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year-old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there. In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing.
Civil defence workers carry a body found under rubble after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.Credit: The New York Times
The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether injuries and damage were caused by rockets or interceptors.
Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later.
Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Israel’s military said it targeted command centres for Hezbollah and its intelligence unit in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where the militants have a strong presence.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 3700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. About 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north.
EU envoy calls for pressure to reach a truce
The European Union’s top diplomat called for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was “pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government”. US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week.
Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati (the Lebanese caretaker prime minister) and the Lebanese parliament’s Speaker, Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group. Borrell said the EU was ready to allocate €200 million ($320 million) to assist the Lebanese military.
But Borrell later said that he did not “see the Israeli government interested clearly in reaching an agreement for a ceasefire” and that it seemed Israel was seeking new conditions. He pointed to Israel’s refusal to accept France as a member of the international committee that would oversee the ceasefire’s implementation.
The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the month-long 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of UN peacekeepers.
One year since the only hostage-release deal
With talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza stalled, freed hostages and families of those held marked a year since the war’s only hostage-release deal.
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“It’s hard to hold on to hope, certainly after so long and as another winter is about to begin,” said Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas, who is held along with her husband and two young sons.
About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Most of the rest of the 250 who were abducted in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack were released in last year’s ceasefire.
Recent talks for another deal had several setbacks, including the firing of Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who pushed for a deal, and Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation. Hamas wants Israel to end the war and withdraw all troops from Gaza. Israel has offered only to pause its offensive.
The Palestinian death toll from the war surpassed 44,000 this week, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
On Sunday, six people were killed in strikes in central Gaza, according to AP journalists at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
AP
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