Israeli army

Iran blamed Israel and the United States on Wednesday for twin bomb blasts that killed at least 95 people in the country's south, ripping through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani four years after his death in a U.S. strike.

The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah said on Telegram that it views the killings of senior Hamas members in Beirut as a "serious attack on Lebanon" and a "dangerous development in the course of the war between the enemy and the axis of resistance," Reuters reported.

The Israeli army has said it is "prepared for any scenario" in the aftermath of a strike in Beirut that killed Hamas's deputy chief, stoking fears the war in the Gaza Strip could boil over into wider regional conflict.

The Israeli army has confirmed that thousands of troops will be withdrawn from the Gaza Strip. In preparation for an anticipated lower-intensity phase of the war, which began on October 7 against the Islamist movement Hamas, however, the Israel Defense Forces said they expected the fighting to last at least six months or even all of 2024.

Shelling and missile strikes rocked the length of the Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday, after Israel's army warned its war against the territory's Hamas rulers will last through 2024.

Nearly three months of conflict have claimed almost 22,000 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and devastated much of the besieged territory.

Israeli strikes pounded Gaza on Sunday as both sides near the end of a dark year and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the war will last for "many months".

At least 48 Palestinians were killed in overnight bombing in Gaza City, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said, with many still buried under the rubble.

Israelis and Palestinians end a dark year on Sunday, with no end in sight to the deadliest military offensive on Gaza, triggered by Hamas' attack on Israel.

There has been no respite from Israel's air raids, artillery fire or ground fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, to the despair of Palestinians surviving the onslaught.

Israel has subjected the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip to intense shelling with tanks and airstrikes. Clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters were also reported. A series of airstrikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli army said early Saturday that it was carrying out strikes in Syria after two rockets fired from the country fell into territory under its control.

"Following the report regarding sirens sounding in northern Israel, a short while ago two launches that were identified crossing from Syria fell in an open area," the army said.

After nearly three months of deadly strikes, incessant displacements and sputtering humanitarian aid, "exhausted" Gazans say they are desperate for an end to the fighting as Israel's war against Hamas looks set to grind on into the new year.