Sawt Falasteen - Five dead in new Israeli strike on Beirut's centre

For weeks Israeli air strikes have pounded the now largely emptied southern Beirut stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah, but raids on the city centre had been relatively rare.

Israel escalated its bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in late September, later sending in ground troops to Lebanon's south, and vowing to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow Israelis displaced by cross-border fire to return home.

The second front opened even as Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues after more than a year.

On Monday rescuers said they were still struggling to find possible survivors after an Israeli strike killed at least 34 people and left dozens missing in devastated north Gaza.

In the latest Israeli strikes on Beirut, Lebanon's health ministry said five people were killed and 24 wounded.

The official National News Agency (NNA) said an apartment near a Shiite Muslim place of worship had been targeted, "causing great damage".

The densely populated working class district of Zuqaq al-Blat has welcomed many displaced people who fled Israeli strikes on south and east Lebanon, as well as south Beirut -- areas where Hezbollah holds sway.

A strike several hundred metres (yards) away on Sunday killed three people, the ministry said, after reporting another Israeli strike which claimed seven lives in the city centre.

- 'Direct hit' -

Hezbollah on Monday said that strike, which killed its spokesman Mohammed Afif, also killed four members of its media team.

Israel has not commented on the strikes in central Beirut but confirmed that one air raid in the area killed Afif.

He is the latest senior Hezbollah official to be killed. A strike killed the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September in south Beirut.

On Monday, Israel's military said Hezbollah fired around 100 projectiles into northern Israel, with some intercepted by the air defence system.

In Shfaram, east of the Haifa area where Hezbollah has regularly claimed attacks, a rocket hit a building and killed a woman, emergency personnel said.

The building "suffered a direct hit" and 10 other people were mildly injured, first responders said.

In the suburbs of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv later, five people were injured, including one woman in serious condition, after rocket fire hit central Israel, first responders said.

Back in central Beirut, Shukri Fuad, a businesswoman, was unhurt after the Israeli strikes, but said she lost "our whole life's work" when one strike hit a busy commercial district, sparking a huge blaze and destroying her shop.

The strikes prompted the closure of schools and higher education institutions in the Beirut area for two days.

- 'Very positive' -

Israel widened the focus of its war from Gaza to Lebanon after nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border exchanges, which Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas in Gaza.

Lebanese authorities say more than 3,510 people have been killed since October last year, with most casualties recorded since September.

Lebanon's government has largely endorsed a US truce proposal to end the Israel-Hezbollah war and was preparing final comments before sending a response to Washington, a Lebanese official told AFP on Monday.

"Lebanon has a very positive view on this proposal," one government official who has been following the talks closely said.

Another government official told AFP Beirut was "waiting for US special envoy Amos Hochstein to arrive so we can review certain outstanding points with him".

He was expected this week, the sources said.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament on Monday that even with a deal Israel would "carry out operations against Hezbollah" to keep the group from rebuilding.

- Home among the rubble -

In southern Gaza, civil defence rescuers said four members of a single family were killed when a strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area -- an Israeli-designated "safe zone".

"These are my children, my nephews and nieces, torn to pieces," said Al-Baraa Abu al-Hasan, who lost relatives in the attack.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war has reached 43,922, a majority civilians, figures that the United Nations consider reliable.

Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

On Monday civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP rescuers were "using rudimentary tools to look for survivors under the building's rubble" after Sunday's Israeli strike that left dozens dead and missing.

Israel's military said several strikes were directed at militant targets in the area.

On Monday, Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry said at least 20 people were killed in a security operation targeting "gangs" that looted trucks bringing sorely needed aid into the territory.

As winter nears and many of Gaza's displaced shelter in tent camps, some have resorted to building makeshift homes using broken concrete from war-damaged buildings and antiquated techniques to make mortar.

H.Darwish--SF-PST