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New Hezbollah chief says open to truce with Israel if offer is made

Hezbollah's new leader on Wednesday said the beleaguered Lebanese movement could agree to a ceasefire under certain terms, as Israeli forces expand their bombardment of the group's bastions.

Naim Qassem's statement came as Israel's security cabinet met to discuss a possible truce, but also as Israel attacked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and said it had killed another senior Hezbollah commander.

Lebanon's premier Najib Mikati said he was "cautiously optimistic" about a ceasefire in "the coming hours or days".

First responders work amid fire and destruction after an Israeli air strike in the southern Lebanese village of Abbasiyeh near Tyre

Israel launches fresh strikes on Tyre after 7 killed in earlier raid

Israel launched fresh strikes Monday on Tyre, Lebanese state media said, after the Israeli military told swathes of the southern city to evacuate and following an earlier raid that killed seven people.

The National News Agency (NNA) reported "a series of strikes" on the ancient coastal city, beginning with a raid on a residential apartment.

An AFP video journalist reported thick clouds of smoke covering parts of Tyre, including rising from a building along the seafront.

Lebanon's coastal city of Tyre was subjected to heavy Israeli strikes last week, leaving swathes of the centre in ruins

Egypt proposes two-day Gaza truce in hope of full ceasefire

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has proposed a two-day truce in Gaza and limited hostage exchange aimed at securing "a complete ceasefire" after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.

The proposal made on Sunday includes exchanging four Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and would be followed by more negotiations within 10 days, Sisi said at a news conference in Cairo.

He did not say whether the plan had been formally presented to either Israel or Hamas.

Palestinians pray over bodies of relatives, killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip

Egypt proposes two-day Gaza truce in hope of full ceasefire

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday proposed a two-day truce in Gaza and limited hostage exchange aimed at securing "a complete ceasefire" after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.

The proposal includes exchanging four Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and would be followed by more negotiations within 10 days, Sisi said at a news conference in Cairo.

He did not say whether the plan had been formally presented to either Israel or Hamas.

Palestinians pray over bodies of relatives, killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip

Lebanon says 8 killed in Israel strike near coastal city of Sidon

Lebanon's health ministry said at least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded Sunday in an Israeli strike near the southern city of Sidon, where an AFP correspondent said a building was targeted.

The strike hit a densely-populated area in a Sidon suburb that saw an influx of families displaced from areas further south.

It was the first strike there since the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted last month.

"The Israeli enemy's raid on Haret Saida resulted in a... toll of eight killed," the health ministry said, revising an earlier toll of two dead.

War casts shadow over Lebanon's ancient Baalbek

Since war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah, the famed Palmyra Hotel in east Lebanon's Baalbek has been without visitors, but long-time employee Rabih Salika refuses to leave -- even as bombs drop nearby.

The hotel, which was built in 1874, once welcomed renowned guests including former French President Charles de Gaulle and American singer Nina Simone.

Overlooking a large archaeological complex encompassing the ruins of an ancient Roman town, the Palmyra has kept its doors open through several conflicts and years of economic collapse.

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese city of Baalbek in September

Defence minister urges Israel make concessions to free Gaza hostages

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned Sunday that "painful concessions" would be needed to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza and that military action alone will not achieve the country's war aims.

"Not all objectives can be achieved through military operations alone... to realise our moral duty to bring our hostages home, we will have to make painful concessions," Gallant said, in a speech marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year.

Israel pounds Gaza and Lebanon after Iran strikes

Israel bombarded Hezbollah and Hamas targets in Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, with no respite in the conflict one day after its strikes on Iran raised fears of a broader war.

The Israeli military said it had killed 70 Hezbollah fighters and struck 120 targets in southern Lebanon and carried out "precision strikes" on weapons factories and storage facilities in the Iran-backed group's southern Beirut stronghold over the past day.

Israeli air strikes triggered huge explosions in villages outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre

One dead, dozens hurt in Israel truck ramming

A driver rammed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday, killing a man and injuring more than two dozen people, medics and police said.

Police did not immediately say whether the incident, near the Mossad spy agency's headquarters and other Israeli intelligence sites, was an attack or an accident.

In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers killed a man the military said tried to stab them during a "counterterrorism" operation near Jerusalem, describing it as a "terror attack" against troops.

Israeli police and emergency responders recover the body of the truck driver at the site of a ramming in Ramat HaSharon, north of Tel Aviv

Syria Kurd force denies links to Ankara attack as Turkey strikes

The commander of a Kurdish-led force in Syria denied links to a deadly attack near Ankara claimed by Kurdish PKK militants, after Turkish strikes on Kurd-held Syria killed more than a dozen people in retaliation.

Turkey carried out air strikes against targets linked to Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after Wednesday's shooting and suicide attack that killed five people at a defence firm near the Turkish capital.

Syrian Democratic Forces commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi told AFP that an internal probe showed 'no connection' with a deadly attack near Ankara