Israel strikes Gaza after Lebanon flare-up

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israel's military struck the Gaza Strip on Monday a day after truce talks in Cairo coincided with a major but brief cross-border escalation involving Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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.

Intense diplomacy in recent weeks sought to head off a broader retaliation for the late July killings of senior HIzbollah officer Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike on Beirut, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Western and Arab diplomats have stressed the urgency of securing a truce in Gaza and hostage release deal to calm regional tensions.

Mediators held meetings in the Egyptian capital Sunday but reported no breakthrough in months of protracted negotiations as the fighting in Gaza raged on.

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.

"There are still martyrs and body parts under the rubble, most of them women, men and elderly people who were sleeping" when the building was hit, ambulance driver Hussein Muhaysen said.

'Final word' 

Israel's military campaign in Gaza  has killed at least 40,405 people, according to the  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.

'Where will we go?' 

A Hamas official said that a delegation from the group met mediators in Egypt's capital on Sunday. It had also been planned that Israeli negotiators would go to Cairo.

The talks have been based on a framework laid out in late May by US President Joe Biden and a "bridging proposal" Washington put forth earlier this month with support from Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

A main stumbling block has been Israel's rejection of Hamas's long-standing demand for a "complete" Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it must keep control of several strategic areas to stop Hamas from arming.

More than 10 months of war have left large parts of Gaza in ruins, ravaged its healthcare system and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of famine.

A batch of polio vaccines entered Gaza on Sunday, Israeli authorities said. UN agencies have planned a mass inoculation drive after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed.

Successive Israeli evacuation orders have forced many Gazans, often already displaced at least once by the war, to move again.

"We have nowhere to go," said Maha al-Sarsak, who was initially displaced from Gaza City to the south, which she "had to leave", before reaching Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir Al Balah.

"We came here... and now they want (us) to leave," she told AFP. With the hospital evacuated, "where will we go?"