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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Ten months of cross-border violence between Hizbollah and Israeli forces has killed senior commanders and several hundred fighters from the Iran-backed group, causing destruction and displacing tens of thousands on both sides.

Hizbollah has seen more fighters killed since October than when it last went to war with Israel in the summer of 2006.

AFP looks at the mounting toll for the Shiite Muslim movement, which has been trading near-daily fire with the Israeli army in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

Commanders killed 

Israeli strikes have killed key Hizbollah commanders in recent months, the most senior of them top operations chief in south Lebanon Fuad Shukr, who died in a raid on Beirut's southern suburbs on July 30. Hizbollah has vowed to respond to his killing.

In January, a commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Wissam Tawil, was killed in an Israeli strike on his vehicle in south Lebanon.

Two out of its three area commanders in south Lebanon have also been killed -- Mohammed Nasser and Taleb Abdallah.

Hizbollah divided its operations in south Lebanon into three areas following the 2006 war, each with its own "military formation, commander, personnel, weapons and capacities", the group's chief Hassan Nasrallah said last month.

He said south of the Litani river comprised two areas: a western sector, covered by Hezbollah's Aziz unit, and an eastern sector running to the contested Shebaa Farms manned by the group's Nasr unit, which opened Hezbollah's cross-border attacks in October.

The third sector, north of the Litani river up to the coastal city of Sidon, is covered by the group's Badr unit.

Aziz unit commander Nasser was killed in an Israeli strike last month, while Nasr unit commander Abdallah was killed in a raid the month before.

Israel has repeatedly said it has killed other Hezbollah fighters whom it has called "commanders".

Dead fighters 

The violence has killed some 570 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters from Hizbollah but also including dozens from allied armed groups including Hamas, according to an AFP tally, with at least 118 civilians among the dead.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to military figures.

Hizbollah has issued statements announcing the deaths of more than 370 members who have been killed in Lebanon, according to the AFP tally.

The Lebanese group has mostly described them as "martyred on the road to Jerusalem", the phrase it uses to refer to those killed in Israeli strikes.

Another 25 have been killed in neighbouring Syria, where Israel has for years carried out strikes on army positions and pro-Iran fighters, also seeking to cut off Hezbollah supply lines to Lebanon from Tehran.

According to the statements, around 320 of the slain Hizbollah fighters were from south Lebanon, with some 60 from the eastern Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria.

Several south Lebanon villages close to the Israeli border each count around a dozen slain fighters, the statements have indicated.

Around 70 per cent of the more than 230 fighters killed since late January, when Hezbollah began to provide the year of birth on its death statements, were aged 40 or under.

At least six were aged 20 or under, with three born the same year as the 2006 war or after it.

A source close to Hizbollah, requesting anonymity, told AFP that fewer than 300 fighters from the group were killed in the 2006 conflict.

Hizbollah operations 

Hizbollah has said it is seeking to tie up Israeli military resources in the country's north in support of ally Hamas.

The escalating attacks have raised fears of a broader conflict, and Lebanon has been on edge since Shukr's death.

Earlier this month, the heavily armed group said it had carried out 2,500 "military operations" against Israel since October.

It claimed to have targeted "border positions" 1,328 times and "military barracks" 391 times, using a variety of weapons including artillery, rockets, "guided missiles" and "air defence weapons".

The group has also released three videos purportedly showing surveillance drone footage taken by the group across the border, widely viewed as a potential bank of targets in case of all-out war.

The footage includes aerial images of military positions in northern Israel and the annexed Golan Heights, as well as sensitive areas in and around the port city of Haifa.

GENEVA — US-sponsored talks on agreeing a ceasefire in the devastating conflict in Sudan kicked off in Switzerland on Wednesday, despite the Sudanese government staying away.

War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under the country's de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The talks are being convened by Tom Perriello, the US special envoy for Sudan, who said after the opening session that it was "high time for the guns to be silenced".

The talks, which could last up to 10 days, are being held behind closed doors in an undisclosed location in Switzerland.

While the RSF delegation is taking part, the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) are unhappy with the format arranged by Washington.

"Our US delegation, and the collective international partners, technical experts and Sudanese civil society, are still waiting on the SAF. The world is watching," Perriello said before the talks began.

He urged the government to "seize the opportunity".

Humanitarian access 

The talks are co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations acting as a steering group.

"Our focus is to move forward to achieve a cessation of hostilities, enhance humanitarian access and establish enforcement mechanisms that deliver concrete results," Perriello said.

The brutal conflict has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The fighting has forced one in five people to flee their homes, while tens of thousands have died. 

More than 25 million across the country -- more than half its population -- face acute hunger.

Vittorio Oppizzi, Sudan programme manager for the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said both parties had "manipulated" humanitarian access, in violation of international law.

He told reporters MSF was well used to operating in conflict zones, and safe and unhindered access "should not be dependent on a cessation to hostility or a solution to the conflict".

Pressure on Burhan 

Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group, said Burhan was facing "serious internal divisions", with some in his camp in favour of talks and others "fiercely opposed".

The government no-show could leave Burhan under mounting external pressure, if he is seen as "the main obstacle to ending the war", said Boswell.

Previous talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah came to nothing.

Cameron Hudson, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Africa programme, told AFP that Washington had "tried to create the illusion of momentum" to force the army's hand, "but it was a bluff and the SAF saw through it." 

"The only way to get them to talk is through brute force: either the risk of losing the war on the battlefield, the risk of real diplomatic isolation and the risk of real economic devastation for them. None of that pressure currently exists."

'Peace, now' 

There has been no let-up in the fighting.

The Emergency Lawyers -- a group of volunteer lawyers who have documented human rights violations during the war -- reported "increased indiscriminate artillery shelling by the RSF on civilian areas" this week, particularly in El-Fasher and Omdurman, where they reported strikes on a school, a bus carrying civilian passengers and a hospital.

Around a hundred demonstrators gathered outside the UN headquarters in Geneva, chanting: "Action for Sudan" and holding a banner reading "Stop the catastrophic war".

"We are not naive but this is critical now and they have to sit down and negotiate peace. We want peace now, ceasefire now," co-organiser Lina Rasheed told AFP.

Amani Maghoub, who came especially from London, said: "The situation is so bad, we want the war to stop right now," adding: "We want justice for the Sudanese."

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein warned Wednesday the clock was ticking for a Gaza ceasefire that could also help end 10 months of cross-border exchanges between Lebanon's Hizbollah and Israel.

His Lebanon trip comes a day before ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are set to resume, with top diplomats scrambling to avert all-out war after Iran and Hizbollah vowed revenge for recent high-profile killings.

Hochstein told a Beirut news conference that he and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hizbollah ally, discussed "the framework agreement that's on the table for a Gaza ceasefire, and he and I agreed there is no more time to waste and there's no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay".

"The deal would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war," Hochstein said.

"We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now."

Late last month, an Israeli strike killed top Hizbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of the group, just hours before Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran in an attack blamed on Israel.

"The more time goes by of escalated tensions... the more the odds and the chances go up for accidents, for mistakes, for inadvertent targets to be hit that could easily cause escalation that gets out of control," Hochstein warned.  

Diplomatic resolution 'achievable' 

"Here in Lebanon we believe we can get to [the] end of the conflict now, today. We recognise that there are those who want to tie it to other conflicts. That is not our position," Hochstein said. 

"We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel," Hochstein said.

Hizbollah has repeatedly said it would only end hostilities once a Gaza ceasefire deal has been reached. 

The US envoy also met Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who warned in a statement that "Israeli intransigence is threatening efforts to stop the war".

Last week, Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his group and Iran were "obliged to respond" to Israel "whatever the consequences" after the killings of Shukr and Haniyeh.

On Tuesday, Lebanon's pro-Hizbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar published a report headlined "Don't welcome the Israeli mediator", accusing Hochstein of providing assurances before Shukr's killing that Israel would not strike Beirut's southern suburbs.

The Hamas ally has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian. The violence has killed some 568 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures. 

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Foreign Ministry condemned the "storming" of the mosque, calling it a "flagrant violation of international law".

"The continual violations of the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its sanctities require a clear and firm international position that condemns these violations," ministry spokesperson Sufyan al-Qudah said in a statement.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led hundreds of Israelis into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed East Jerusalem Tuesday and performed prayers marking a Jewish holiday, sources said.

Ben Gvir, who has often defied the Israeli government's longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the mosque compound, vowed to "defeat Hamas" in Gaza in a video he filmed during his visit.

While Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the mosque compound in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem during specified hours, they are not permitted to pray or display religious symbols.

In recent years, the restrictions have been increasingly flouted by hardline religious nationalists like Ben Gvir, prompting sometimes violent reactions from Palestinians.

On Tuesday morning, Ben Gvir and some 2,250 other Israelis walked through the compound in groups, singing Jewish hymns, under the protection of Israeli police, an official from the Waqf, the Jordanian body that is custodian of the site, told AFP.

"Minister Ben Gvir, instead of maintaining the status quo at the mosque is supervising the Judaisation operation and trying to change the situation inside Al Aqsa Mosque," the official said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak on the issue.

Israeli occupation forces also "imposed restrictions" on Muslim worshippers trying to enter the mosque, he said.

Images posted on social media networks showed Ben Gvir inside the compound while several Israelis lay on the ground performing Talmudic rituals.

Ben Gvir released a video statement on social media platform X, which he filmed inside the compound himself, renewing his opposition to any truce in the war in Gaza.

"We must win this war. We must win and not go to the talks in Doha or Cairo," he said, referring to the US-backed negotiations for a truce and hostage release deal for Gaza to resume on Thursday.

The office of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Ben Gvir's visit "deviated from the status quo". 

Tuesday's entry into the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound comes on the Jewish mourning day of Tisha Be'Av that commemorates the destruction of the ancient temple. 

Last month too, Ben Gvir, who is known for provocative acts, said he had prayed inside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, defying the longstanding rules that permit Jewish visits but forbid prayer.

TEHRAN — Iran on Tuesday rejected Western calls to stand down its threat to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.

The Islamic republic and its allies have blamed Israel for Haniyeh's killing on July 31 during a visit to the Iranian capital for the swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not commented.

Iran has vowed to avenge the death, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior commander of Hizbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.

Western diplomats have scrambled to avert a major conflagration in the Middle East, where tensions were already high due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

In a statement on Monday, the United States and its European allies urged Iran to de-escalate.

"We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place," said the joint statement from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

The White House warned that a "significant set of attacks" by Iran and its allies was possible as soon as this week, saying Israel shared the same assessment.

The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group and a guided missile submarine to the region in support of Israel.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani criticised the Western call for it to de-escalate.

"The declaration by France, Germany and Britain, which raised no objection to the international crimes of the Zionist regime, brazenly asks Iran to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said in a statement.

"Such a request lacks political logic, flies in the face of the principles and rules of international law, and constitutes public and practical support" for Israel.

 Call for 'unfettered' aid 

The United States and its European allies also called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with difficult talks set for Thursday on halting the conflict.

They also called for the "unfettered" delivery of aid to devastated Gaza.

The Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,897 people, according to a toll from the territory's health ministry.

International mediators have invited Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations this week on a ceasefire and hostage release deal, an invitation Israel has accepted.

Hamas has urged mediators to implement a truce plan earlier presented by US President Joe Biden instead of holding more talks.

Analyst Esfandyar Batmanghelidj said Iran was considering how to retaliate against Israel without derailing the ceasefire talks.

"The renewed push for a ceasefire offers Iran a way out of this escalatory cycle," Batmanghelidj, CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation think-tank, told AFP.

"Iranian officials still feel obliged to hit back at Israel, but they must do so in a way that doesn't derail the prospects for a ceasefire summit."

KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories — Palestinians fled southern Gaza's main city on Sunday as Israel warned of a new military operation, a day after one of the deadliest reported strikes in more than 10 months of war.

The Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip has sent tensions soaring across the region, including in the occupied West Bank where medics said an Israeli man was killed Sunday in a shooting.

Intense diplomacy in recent days sought to avert a wider war in the Middle East following the killings of Iran-aligned leaders, while international mediators invited Israel and Hamas to resume stalled talks towards a long-sought Gaza truce and hostage-release deal.

AFP journalists said hundreds of Palestinians fled northern neighbourhoods of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city already ravaged by months of bombardment and battles, after Israel issued fresh evacuation orders in the early morning.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that "just in the past few days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in southwest Gaza". The entire territory has a population of about 2.4 million people.

Families gathered their meagre belongings as crowds of people left Al Jalaa, some loading mattresses, clothing and cooking utensils into pick-up trucks. Others took to the road on foot.

Umm Sami Shahada, a 55-year-old displaced Palestinian, said she had “fled Gaza City at the start of the war for Khan Yunis”, hoping to find shelter.

“My daughter was killed in bombardment, so we went to Rafah, then we came back here, and now with this new evacuation order we don’t know where to go,” she said.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed at least 93 people at a religious school housing displaced Palestinians, according to civil defence rescuers, sparking international condemnation.

Israel said it targeted militants operating out of Gaza City’s Al Tabieen school and mosque with “precise munitions”, declaring that “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated”.

The death toll, which AFP could not independently verify, would be one of the largest from a single strike since the war began.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency in Hamas-run Gaza, said on Sunday that identifying the victims could take at least two days as “we have many bodies torn into pieces” and “shredded or burnt by the bombs”.

Hamas in a statement called Arab and Muslim nations to “take effective decisions” to stop the war and demanded an urgent UN Security Council meeting to force Israel “to stop the aggression and genocide”.

The Palestinian group, which has named its Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar to succeed slain political leader Ismail Haniyeh, has yet to respond to an invitation from US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators for truce negotiations on August 15. Israel has accepted.

Haniyeh was killed during a visit to Tehran on July 31, an attack blamed on Israel which has not claimed responsibility. But hours earlier it the military chief of Lebanese Hamas ally Hizbollah in a strike on Beirut.

Iran, Hamas, Hizbollah and other regional allies have vowed retaliation, spurring fears of a wider conflagration.

US President Joe Biden, asked what his message was to Iran, responded: “Don’t”.