Israel-Hamas war latest: Israel launches more strikes on Lebanon, state media and witnesses say,

 Fighting resumed Monday after a brief lull that followed intense hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with both sides exchanging heavy strikes.

State media and witnesses said Israeli strikes also targeted the Lebanese border village of Tair Harfa and an area of the coastal city of Sidon in the afternoon. A car was hit in the latter attack.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported the man "from one of the Palestinian organizations" had been in the car during the strike but escaped. In addition to the strikes on Hezbollah, Israel has targeted members of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Lebanon on occasion. No other casualties were reported immediately.

Hours later, in the afternoon, Hezbollah said it had attacked military surveillance equipment in northern Israel with a drone carrying explosives.

Israel conducted dozens of air strikes deep inside southern Lebanon, part of what it says was a pre-emptive operation planned by Hezbollah but cut short after it killed one of the group's top commanders, Fouad Shukur, in an Israeli air strike in Beirut last month.

 

Shortly after, Hezbollah fired a hail of hundreds of drones and rockets, saying it was in revenge for Shukur. The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said that the drones had struck a site near Tel Aviv hosting an Israeli military intelligence position, among others. Israel said no military target was hit. Neither offered evidence.

Hezbollah announced that it had ended its retaliatory operation, at least for now, and overnight there were no strikes from either side.  

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Updates below:

Intensifying conflict hampers Gaza food aid deliveries, UN agencies say

JERUSALEM — U.N. agencies say they have only been able to deliver about half the food required in Gaza over the last two months because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and heavily damaged roads.

The IPC—the leading international authority on hunger crises—warned in June that Gaza is at "high risk" of famine, with almost its entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians suffering from some form of hunger.

The World Food Program said in a statement Monday that in July and August it was only able to deliver around half of the 24,000 metric tons of food aid planned for operations serving 1.1 million people.

It said its operations were "severely hampered by intensifying conflict, the limited number of border crossings and damaged roads."

It cautioned that roads pockmarked with shell craters and litter are already impassable and will become impossible in a few months when winter rains start falling.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by Israel's relentless bombardment of Hamas targets, as well as far-reaching Israeli orders for evacuations that the U.N. currently estimates cover some 84 percent of Gaza's territory—to squalid tent camps along the coastline.

Israel has controlled all of Gaza's border crossings since May, when it captured the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Egypt has refused to open its side until the Gaza side is returned to Palestinian control.

Israel, which has come under heavy international pressure to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Gaza, says it allows unlimited amounts of aid to enter and accuses U.N. agencies of failing to deliver it.

The United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees—the largest provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza—has also warned of the impending hunger crisis in the area.

It said that with repeated evacuation orders, breakdown of law and order, and damaged roads, more than 1 million people would likely not receive food rations for August.

It also estimates that people in Gaza are only getting 1-3 litres of drinking water per day. The WHO says that people need 15 litres of water per day for basic requirements.

 

Iran's foreign minister pledges 'decisive' retaliation against Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's foreign minister again has cited his country's intended retaliation over the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh during a Tehran visit.

Abbas Araghchi posted Sunday that he had made the comment in a phone call with Italy's foreign minister, Antonio Tajani.

"Iran reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated," Araghchi posted on the social platform X. "We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it—unlike Israel.".

"I called for restraint and to pursue a constructive approach to stop the cycle of military actions in the region, he said, which only risks bringing more suffering."

"It is very important that Iran exercise its moderating influence over Hezbollah to prevent this from flaring up on Israel's northern border, where there are Italian soldiers as part of the UNIFIL contingent, and over the Houthis to prevent this from further escalating tensions in the Red Sea region, where Italy is at the forefront in the Aspides operation conducted by the European Union," he said in a statement.

Their call came after Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, long backed by Iran, traded heavy fire early Sunday but stepped back from the edge of an all-out war widely feared.

Israel says more polio vaccines are delivered to Gaza

Over a million polio vaccines have been brought into the Gaza Strip, Israel's military said Sunday, in the wake of confirmation of the first case of the disease in a quarter-century.

It was not immediately clear how, and how quickly, the more than 25,000 vials of vaccine would be distributed into the Gaza Strip, where fighting and unrest have challenged humanitarian efforts during more than 10 months of war.

Other cases of polio are feared across the war-raked country after the virus was detected in feces in six various districts from July.

Health officials are targeting to vaccinate over 600,000 children below the age of 10 years and have implored that the war pause be sped up to enable the children to get more vaccinations. The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Agency have noted that at least seven days are required in case of reduction.

The U.N. sought to bring 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps with little if any water supplied either for drinking or for proper disposal of sewage and garbage. Sometimes people wash dishes or drink from wastewater.